Can You Attend a Vancouver School Board Meeting In Person?

Jennifer Reddy is confused about when people can attend Vancouver School Board meetings in person at the school district’s main office on Broadway.

If Reddy is confused as a two-term school trustee, she asks, where will that leave the public?

VSB meetings are generally supposed to be public by law, but Reddy says there’s no clarity on how people can access these meetings if they cannot access the meeting livestream — or later, recording — available on YouTube.

“We need options for people to connect with the decision-making process,” Reddy said, adding some people in the district don’t have the technology or know-how to access livestreamed meetings.

“Not everyone connects in one way. Having opportunities to meet and connect with your elected officials, I think, is part of a robust, developing democracy.”

Reddy’s comments come after former VSB trustee Ruth Herman attempted to attend the April 3 special board meeting in person. This meeting unveiled the first public draft of the district’s $700-million budget for the 2023-24 school year.

Reddy was elected under the OneCity Vancouver banner. Herman has also worked with OneCity, and the party put out a press release on April 5 detailing Herman’s inability to attend the meeting in person.

“Usually at the board meetings they have the budget documents on paper, and I find it easier to follow,” said Herman, adding in the past you could also talk to trustees after the meeting.

But when Herman tried to enter the district offices on April 3, the entrances were locked. After texting Reddy for assistance, Herman said she was met by VSB deputy superintendent David Nelson. She says he told her public attendance was not allowed because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Tyee has reached out to Nelson for a response.

Herman has asked the district for an apology and to reopen all public meetings to in-person attendance.

“I’m a senior and not as technologically advanced as I ought to be,” said Herman, who watched the rest of the meeting online at home. “I like to look at what’s going on in the room, I like to see people’s faces.”

Section 69.1 and 69.2 of the School Act state board meetings must be open to the public. But if the board believes restricting access to non-trustees is in the public interest, they may do so.

The Tyee requested an interview with VSB chair Victoria Jung, but she was not made available. VSB spokesperson Jiana Chow told The Tyee she cannot speak to the conversation between Nelson and Herman, but in-person public and media access to regular board meetings, which include time for the public to ask the board questions, has not changed.

Herman was unable to attend the April 3 meeting in person, Chow said, because it was a board meeting that dissolved into a committee of the whole meeting — meaning it was for all trustees plus representatives of stakeholder groups including teachers, administrators and support staff.

Even if the public were allowed to attend, there would not have been paper copies of the budget provided to them, Chow said. “Everything is electronic.”

The public may weigh in or ask questions about the budget at public delegation meetings on April 19 and 26, provided they register to speak in advance, Chow added. But those meetings are also online only.

“This actually improves the accessibility where you can join in virtually: you can join in during the time you’re registered [to speak] or you can watch the entire meeting,” she said.

Many school boards moved meetings online during the pandemic, says Carolyn Broady, president of the British Columbia School Trustees Association and chair of the West Vancouver school board. Her own district has made committee meetings online only, while board meetings remain open to in-person access.

“It’s local boards setting their own policies on how to go about this,” Broady said. “This is actually creating more opportunities in some districts for interaction and participation.”

Broady is concerned some areas of the province lack the high-speed internet access required to watch livestreamed meetings, particularly in remote and rural B.C. But she has received feedback that online meetings have improved attendance and participation, and reduced travel time and carbon output.

Public access to the Vancouver board has changed in other ways since COVID. In October 2020 the then-school board voted to restrict public delegations by requiring speakers sign up and share their presentation with district staff in advance, giving them five minutes to speak — a reduction from the previous 10 minutes allotted.

Then in February 2021, the board passed a motion to limit the public’s ability to address the board and committees to a monthly delegation meeting held solely to hear from the public.

In April 2022 this change was made permanent.