Cellphones silenced at LRSD board meetings to keep trustees ‘engaged’

LOUIS Riel School Division trustees are subject to new rules, which are not unlike the ones for 17,000 students in their division in southeast Winnipeg, that dictate when they can use their personal devices.

The board of trustees approved multiple updates to its code of conduct this month. Among them is the explicit requirement every member must use divisional laptops at their public meetings.

“We look at our iPhones, laptops, emails and text messages — that’s life nowadays, but trustees don’t only need to be present in the physical sense. We need to be engaged,” longtime trustee Chris Sigurdson told a recent meeting, speaking in French.

Sigurdson raised the topic on June 2, one week after the nine-seat board received a letter from a resident expressing concerns about tech-related distractions in the boardroom at 50 Monterey Rd.

He called the perception of disengagement — which he later told the Free Press has been flagged to him by multiple meeting observers this year — “a problem for our division’s image.”

Trustee Peter Bjornson echoed those comments, saying a single board member’s behaviour “reflects on all of us.”

On Tuesday, during the board’s subsequent meeting and the last scheduled in 2025-26, trustees voted unanimously to update rules on device usage.

Each elected representative is issued a divisional laptop for their four-year term. Trustees also receive a phone allowance, in addition to an annual salary of approximately $30,000.

As far as Sigurdson is concerned, trustees need to model appropriate technology use at a time when students and school staff are being asked to limit screen time.

Manitoba students are wrapping up the second full year of an outright ban on cellphones in elementary schools. Phones also continue to be, at least on paper, banned during high school classes.

Chair Sandy Nemeth said her school board always reflects on how meetings run, public engagement and improvements.

Trustees recently revised language around disciplining members to make protocols more clear and aligned with provincial legislation. A majority vote of active board members is necessary to issue a public censure.

Nemeth said recent changes will better equip new trustees, should there be any after this fall’s elections, for their roles at the outset.

Voters will cast their ballots in school board races across Winnipeg on Oct. 28.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca