UPDDATE:
Dec. 7th Committee of the Whole
There was a Substitution Motion placed on the floor by Trustee Scott to:
- add a new PIC non-voting member to both COW and COW budget.
- There will also be a moratorium placed to adding any more members and
- a formal review of the committee membership policy, it’s non-voting committee members, their roles and responsibilities, and a potential change to those non-voting members will be asked to be completed by staff.
No timeline was set out for this work to begin or to be completed by.
OCASC’s seat remains unchanged in this motion.
All trustees present, with the exception of Trustee Bell who abstained, voted in favour of the motion.
On Oct. 26, 2021 the Parent Involvement Committee PIC approved a motion to bring to the next COW meeting THAT sections 2.1 and 2.2 of P.010.GOV, Community Involvement on Board Standing Committees, be amended to include a Parent Involvement Committee representative on the Committee of the Whole
OCASC met after first PIC meeting and were concerned that OCASC’s role might be impacted but that OCASC should delegate in support of two distinct voices being added to the COW table. We continue to maintain our commitment to the COW role and this is reaffirmed yearly by our membership.
Nov. 9, 2021 at Committee of the Whole, Trustee Wendy Hough brought the above motion to the Board.
Trustee Boothby amended the motion to add” to replace the Ottawa-Carleton Assembly of School Councils (OCASC)”. This was discussed and the amendment passed. 7 in favor (Trustees: Boothby, Scott, Schwartz, Hough, Jennekens, Penny and Blackburn) to 5 opposed (Trustees: Fisher, Bell, Lyra, Ellis, and Campbell)
Due to much discussion and the need for more information and consultation, voting on this motion was deferred and will be voted on next COW meeting on Dec. 7th, 2021.
If this motion passes, OCASC will no longer be present at COW table and will not be able to provide input from councils directly to important discussions.
Information
Notes from Nov. 9 COW meeting Summary of Trustee reasons and items of concern
Lynn.scott@ocdsb.ca
chris.ellis@ocdsb.ca
charles.chen@ocdsb.ca
COW Meeting replay
Nov. 9th COW Minutes
https://pub-ocdsb.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=11324
See Section 7.2
Dec 7th COW meeting information
How OCASC seat at COW is used:
- OCASC Co-chairs, consciously at the beginning of their terms consulted with OCASC members on how they wanted that voice at COW to be used. Members wanted for that seat to be a voice with two-way conversation.
- To gather OCDSB reports and bring this information back to councils in timely fashion, allowing councils to be aware of board’s priorities. This way councils would be able to consult effectively and also share with Parents what is important for them to know about their education
- Bring OCASC reports and delegation to COW when needed, ie, funding concerns
- To bring awareness to Trustees and Staff of the council voice and how a typical parent would understand and be affected by decisions, new initiatives, programs etc.
- To ask if board has considered how councils can execute items on agenda, to ask for consultation with councils, or
- To provide feedback back to the Board when what community is experiencing