The Greater Essex County District School Board will no longer allow impromptu speakers at its board meetings after a series of meetings this year that included shouting, trustees leaving the room and police being called to clear the gallery.
At a meeting Tuesday night, trustees voted to remove the speakers list from future board meeting agendas
Trustee Cathy Cooke put forward the motion to eliminate what’s called the speakers’ list from future meetings. She said those in the public have many other avenues to express their views to the school board and school administration.
“We need to remember that this is a business meeting. A business meeting that’s held in public — it’s not a public meeting with an open mic,” she said.
The speakers’ list gave members of the public an opportunity to address the board about items that are not on the meeting’s agenda. Signing up for the list is permitted until 6:45 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Speakers have a time limit of five minutes.
Cooke’s notice of the motion came during a previous board meeting, where the speakers’ list segment of the meeting resulted in the entire board leaving the room and a police officer intervening.
Tuesday night’s vote, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, received one vote against. It passed without debate.
Prior to the vote, Jeremy Palko used the speakers’ list to challenge trustees on the issue. He asked them to cite specific instances their safety was at risk due to the conduct of speakers on the list.
He took aim at what he called the “woke agenda,” saying it takes away from reading, writing and math.
“Faith-based teaching should be left to independent schools and churches,” he said.
“What you may consider disruption is our persistence on behalf of the kids and parents and our faith demands a response and defence of the vulnerable.”
Eliminating the speakers’ list does not mean the public can’t address the board at their meetings. People can still apply to be a delegation to speak on specific items on a meeting’s agenda.
Each item on the agenda can have up to three delegations and delegations can speak for up to 10 minutes each.
Applying to be a delegation must be done the day before the meeting or earlier.
