Five BSD trustees censured

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This article was published 28/06/2023 (1179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five of seven Brandon School Division trustees have been censured for their actions at recent board meetings.

In a release sent out Tuesday afternoon, the division said chairperson Linda Ross, vice-chairperson Jim Murray and trustees Calistus Ekenna, Kim Fallis and Breeanna Sieklicki had all been reprimanded after a motion was passed at Monday’s board meeting.

Earlier that evening, resident Kathy Smitzniuk made a presentation criticizing Murray, Fallis and Ross’ actions following the May 8 board meeting, requesting among other things that they be reprimanded.

At that meeting, former trustee Lorraine Hackenschmidt made a presentation requesting a committee be formed to review and potentially ban books with LGBTQ+ and sexual health content from school libraries.

Ross confirmed the reprimands in a phone interview with the Sun.

At the end of Monday night’s board meeting, it was said trustees were entering an in-camera discussion on trustee conduct. According to Ross, the board went back into an open session to vote on the motion afterwards.

However, Ross said that portion was not included in the livestream of proceedings as the staff member in charge of broadcasting meetings had already gone home.

She said the reprimands do not carry any additional penalty other than a record being made that trustees had acted inappropriately.

Under Manitoba’s Public Schools Act, a motion to sanction a trustee may be debated at a meeting closed to the public, but it must be voted on in public.

A trustee can be sanctioned by being censured, barred from attending all or part of a school board or committee meeting or suspended for up to three months.

In the second and third cases, a two-thirds majority of the board must approve the motion.

Sieklicki and Ekenna were censured for violating BSD bylaw 9, section 6.6, which states that board members may only ask questions for clarification after a presentation from a delegation.

At the May 8 meeting, both Ekenna and Sieklicki praised Hackenschmidt for making the presentation, with Sieklicki imploring Hackenschmidt and those who supported her to return to the next meeting to continue to fight for their request.

“They didn’t just ask questions, they made statements,” Ross said.

Ross, Murray and Fallis were reprimanded for violating board policy 7.7.

It states that trustees must treat their colleagues, division staff, students and members of the community with respect and refrain from using abusive language in dealings with them.

According to Ross, her reprimand came from a May 23 meeting, where she’d commented that Hackenschmidt’s presentation contained material that “wasn’t very bright.”

Murray was reprimanded for comments made at the same meeting, when he said presenter Mike Theriault had made bigoted remarks and that he should be ashamed of himself.

Fallis ended up being censured after allegations were made that she had directed vulgar language toward members of the public after a board meeting.

“My hope is that we’ve all learned something from these events and that we will be more cognizant of policies and procedure and be more careful about adhering to them,” Ross said.

“The wish of the whole board last night in passing that motion was to make it possible for us to get past this division and be able to work productively again in meeting the educational needs of our community.”

Reached by phone, Fallis confirmed she had acted inappropriately and agreed with the decision to sanction her.

“We had a very long discussion and the best thing for the school division, our schooling and the students is getting back to working together, being collegial and working for our students,” she said.

“I wasn’t following the code of conduct, it wasn’t an emotional point. I have to remember that I’m always a trustee, but at that moment I was a mom and I was protecting my child. It’s been a pretty emotional month for the entire board.”

Only trustees Duncan Ross and Blaine Foley were not censured. There are two current vacancies on the board.

The Sun was unable to reach Ekenna, Murray or Sieklicki for comment.

» The Brandon Sun