In-person access to Windsor-Essex public school board meetings returns, with new protocols in place

Members of the public will once again be allowed to attend Greater Essex County District School Board meetings in person, the board announced Tuesday, but there will be new protocols in place for attendees at meetings. 

Security measures include a maximum of 133 available seats, with the crowd size to be monitored by security personnel. All attendees will be required to sign in and out, and signs, posters and "props" will be prohibited, the board said. 

The changes will begin for the Sept. 19 meeting of the board, and meetings of the board will continue to be live streamed.

The move comes after the board closed in-person attendance at its June 20 meeting, citing concerns for "the safety of staff and board members."

At the time, trustees told CBC the change was a result of vitriol and hostility from members of the public. 

"If anyone's been watching our board meetings over the last — since our term started really in December — we've had a series of very disruptive meetings and it has now escalated to the point of safety concerns," trustee Sarah Cipkar said at the time.

One of the issues Cipkar noted was that trustees are seated with their backs to the public. She noted the board has a code of decorum but not means for enforcing it.  

In response to questions from CBC News, board public relations officer Scott Scantlebury said the orientation of seating in the board meeting room had not been changed.

He referred to the board's governance policies, dated March 2019 about removing people from public meetings, which state that attendees can be removed for behaviour that disrupts a meeting or "whose remarks are felt by the chairperson to be offensive or inappropriate" if, when given the opportunity to withdraw their remarks, they refuse to do so. 

Scantlebury said the board office have always had security, but security personnel had not previously been in the meeting room. Security will take a head count at the door, he noted. 

And, Scantlebury said, there are other components to the security plan that, "for security," will not be shared publicly.

Board chair Gale Hatfield did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon. 

Trustees received threats, trustee says

But Cathy Cooke, one of several trustees who spoke about the need for changes, said the board needed to re-open in-person attendance — and she was encouraged by the changes. 

"I'm looking forward to Sept. 19," Cooke said. "Start anew, work with parents, talk with parents and just you know keep in mind that we're there for student success.

"That's the way I want to move forward in a in a very positive way."

Cooke said two trustees had received threats last year, and she was hopeful the changes would help trustees, staff, parents and student trustees all feel safer. 

Other changes include repositioning the microphone used by delegates speaking to the meeting, as well as mirrors in the room so that staff, sitting with their backs to the public, can see what's going on in the gallery, Cooke said. There will also be more than one security guard. 

"The message I want to get across is, this is anew. We had the summer off … Sept. 19 is our first meeting for the school year and I just want it to go positive with us all being on the same page."