Province moves to stop school boards from disqualifying trustees over their conduct

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides tabled legislation on Tuesday that would strip school trustees of the ability to disqualify a colleague for behaving inappropriately.

"We want to strengthen the principle of democratic accountability, and thus, ensure that a school board cannot just fire a trustee on its own volition and that that's something that needs to be done by voters," Nicolaides said at a news conference.

He said citizens can attempt to remove trustees through recall petitions — an option some municipal leaders say some members of the public have weaponized.

A companion piece of legislation, also tabled Tuesday, aims to eliminate codes of conduct for Alberta municipal councils and study appointing an independent ethics commissioner to handle complaints.

But the province is keeping codes of conduct in place for school trustees.

Nicolaides said there have been more situations where municipal council members misused code of conduct complaints to punish political opponents.

Red Deer Catholic trustee removal prompts change

School boards have been required by provincial law since 2017 to have codes of conduct. Previously, school boards could only disqualify trustees in a conflict of interest or who had committed a crime.

In 2019, the United Conservative Party government gave boards the ability to remove trustees over conduct violations.

Four years later, the Red Deer Catholic School board disqualified former trustee Monique LaGrange after finding her twice in violation of the board's code.

LaGrange had posted a meme on social media with two pictures, one on top of the other: one of children holding swastika flags, and the other of children holding Pride flags, with the caption, "Brainwashing is brainwashing."

Her board colleagues found her in violation of the code, pared back her duties, and told her to refrain from commenting on 2SLGBTQ+ issues, apologize and take sensitivity training.

LaGrange didn't comply. Trustees decided that was another violation, and disqualified her from the board.

She appeared to the courts, which upheld most of the board's decisions. LaGrange has now appealed to the Alberta Court of Appeal, according to her lawyer, James Kitchen.

Education officials said on Tuesday the proposed amendment came in response to a petition from people upset about LaGrange's firing. Nicolaides said he also received many emails about it.

Kitchen, LaGrange's lawyer, said in an interview on Tuesday he's pleased to see the province trying to eliminate the power.

Whether it's a personal or political conflict, trustees of any political bent could wield the power against colleagues standing in the way of decisions they prefer, he said.

"That's what human beings do, right? You give them this power, they will use it, right? So it shouldn't be there," he said.

If a trustee's behaviour becomes untenable, school boards could always ask a judge to remove them, Kitchen said.

"It should be really difficult to remove a trustee," Kitchen said. "But it shouldn't be impossible."

LaGrange's case isn't isolated. Last September, the Peace River school division also disqualified a trustee board members said was behaving inappropriately.

Recall legislation requires 40 per cent of electors in a ward to sign a petition within a 60-day window to remove a politician.

NDP education critic Amanda Chapman says most municipal elections don't even see voter turnout as high as 40 per cent.

In some Catholic and francophone school trustee elections, there are so few eligible voters that vote counts are in the dozens or hundreds.

Chapman says she hasn't heard from anyone calling for an end to board disqualification. She said it's disturbing the government would make a provincial change based solely on feedback on the LaGrange case.

Proposed changes to teacher complaints system

Bill 51, the Education Amendment Act,  also proposes to change legal references about private schools to "independent schools," as requested by an association representing the schools.

If passed, the bill would also allow displaced Jasper residents waiting for homes in the fire-ravaged community to run and vote in Jasper school board elections until Dec. 31, 2026. A similar municipal affairs bill also tabled Tuesday would enable the same rights in council elections.

Bill 51 would also tweak the government-run teacher disciplinary process by adding a $250 fee for a complainant to appeal the Alberta teaching profession commissioner's (ATPC) decisions to dismiss complaints she finds to be without merit. Complainants are appealing about a third of decisions, according to government.

"We need the teacher discipline process to be able to really operate effectively," Nicolaides said. "And an important part of that is speed."

A CBC investigation into the ATPC found that since it took charge of accepting and investigating teacher complaints in 2023, former employees, complainants and teachers said cases stalled in a chaotic, inefficient system. As of Tuesday, no public hearings had been scheduled for cases initiated under the new complaint system.

Bill 51 would also eliminate the need for school authorities to report alleged wrongdoing to two different parts of the education ministry. And it would empower the government to tell a teacher's new employer if the professional is the subject of an active complaint.

The Alberta Teachers' Association, which represents teachers facing disciplinary matters, has extensive concerns about the commission.

In a statement, an association spokesperson said the proposed amendments may address some issues with the process, "but do not address other concerns, such as timelines to complete investigations and conduct hearings."