Trustees’ closed-door approach slammed

Winnipeg School Division trustees have a habit of spending extensive periods of public meetings in private and publishing records with errors.

A Free Press review of 2024-2025 regular meeting minutes found elected officials repeatedly spent more time having closed-door conversations than talking openly.

They suggest trustees were in camera for 50 per cent or more of a regular meeting on at least seven of the 15 evenings they met.

“Why are they operating in this manner? In a way, it does erode public trust by making it appear they have something to hide.”– Cameron Hauseman, associate professor at the University of Manitoba

These pivots, which often happen mid-event, require attendees to leave the Wall Street board room indefinitely. The livestream is also cut.

“Why are they operating in this manner? In a way, it does erode public trust by making it appear they have something to hide,” said Cameron Hauseman, an associate professor who researches educational administration and leadership at the University of Manitoba.

Each board member was elected to make important decisions on behalf of a combined 30,000 students and their families, Hauseman noted.

Traffic-calming measures, school nutrition, class sizes, the Spanish-language program, ward boundaries, student demographics and a cellphone survey were among the topics discussed behind closed doors.

(A generic description of what was discussed in camera is included in meeting minutes.)

Hauseman said it’s a best practice for boards to leave confidential topics to the very end of a meeting to avoid disruptions, or to reconvene at another time to discuss them.

On Jan. 13, trustees moved into “committee of the whole” — otherwise known as a break to discuss matters in private — just four minutes into a regular meeting.

More recently, just as the 2024-2025 school year was coming to a close, one parent showed up to discuss changes to the schools-of-choice program.

Despite giving explicit permission to have her spring presentation made in public, the board insisted on moving in camera because her concerns involved her children.

The exact length of confidential discussions on Nov. 4, Nov. 18, Dec. 16, Jan. 13, Feb. 3, March 17 and April 14 is unclear, owing to missing and overlapping time stamps.

Official minutes from June 16 will be reviewed and approved at the board’s next scheduled meeting, after which they will be uploaded online, as is standard practice.

Hauseman said it’s disappointing that trustees in Manitoba’s largest school district have accepted such “sloppy record keeping.”

In addition to releasing unclear meeting minutes, WSD has not posted videos of every meeting.

The videos that are available online are often only snippets of meetings. Several livestreams were interrupted for an in camera break and did not resume when trustees re-entered public proceedings.

Hauseman called on division leaders to explain their practices and make both their meetings — one of few opportunities for voters to hear their representatives in action — and records of them more transparent.

School board chairperson Kathy Heppner defended the number of confidential sessions that took place last year, citing the development of a new strategic plan and other time-intensive items that were “not yet ready to be released to the public.”

“We’re a pretty chatty bunch. We have some pretty robust discussions and so the length of time that we have been in camera, I think, is reflective of that.”– School board chairperson Kathy Heppner

“We’re a pretty chatty bunch. We have some pretty robust discussions and so the length of time that we have been in camera, I think, is reflective of that,” the Ward 3 trustee said.

Given board bylaws entitle a trustee to speak for up to 10 minutes on any item, the minutes can add up quickly, she said.

Heppner indicated that contract negotiations, personnel matters and lease agreements all required closed debate due to their confidential nature.

The nine-person board has also moved in camera if a presenter has spoken about a specific child or school “for privacy,” the chair said.

While acknowledging there have been technology errors that negatively affected livestreaming, she said the 2024-2025 minutes provide a glimpse into trustees’ decision-making.

“There’s always room for improvement,” Heppner said.

Change is underway to improve record-keeping, she said, adding the board is planning to video-record and upload meetings after the fact in the fall instead of relying on livestreaming.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca