GUELPH – The Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) has delayed its Police Presence in Schools Review in order to obtain input from students.
The Police Presence in Schools task force review committee has been collecting information since July and was tasked to bring a report to the board by the end of December.
“As we continue to sift through this data what we are discovering is that student voice is missing from this information and, as we all know, student voice is critical to the decisions we make and the work that we do,” said superintendent Cheryl Van Ooteghem at the Nov. 24 board meeting.
The task force is in the process of putting together a survey for secondary students and asked for a review extension until March 31.
The review is a result of a trustee directive in June due to world-wide attention of racial injustices and questions from the community about the role of policing in schools.
The committee consists of two trustees, one student trustee, three staff members and eight community members from across the UGDSB catchment area.
Trustee Gail Campbell asked whether there were any police officers on the committee.
Van Ooteghem explained there is a civilian from York Region Police on the committee, but no representative from local police services.
“I believe it was when the committee was formed the trustees asked that police not be part of the task force,” she said.
Van Ooteghem added local police have had three opportunities to respond to questions and police representatives have met with the task force.
“We have heard the voices of the police representatives from across the school board,” she said.
Trustee Barbara Lustgarten Evoy asked why trustees don’t get reports, other than the minutes, on committee discussions, noting she heard it was due to confidentiality concerns.
“I don’t believe there is any secrecy about the work that’s being done,” Van Ooteghem said.
“There is confidentiality in that those on the committee are asked not to discuss the contents of the meeting over the dinner table or with their colleagues
“Personal thoughts and opinions are sometimes shared, but we try to keep the meetings very factual and we try very hard to [make] decisions based on the facts that we are receiving.”
Trustee Robin Ross, who sits on the committee, said there isn’t enough information to share at this point.
“It’s been basically building on the terms of reference that everybody has and working with that to start to get that information to gather it,” she said.
Trustee Mike Foley, who’s also on the committee, said the work has been like a sprint.
“We’re meeting weekly,” he said. “We could probably meet twice a week with the amount of data and work that’s available and needed, if everybody had the time.”
He said there is a lot of work going on, but also a lot more information that needs to be collected.
Trustees approved the extension of the Police Presence in Schools Review report to March 31.
