Warrington School/Board Of Trustees/Meeting Procedure Policy

Meeting Procedure Policy

• (an * denotes legislative requirement)
• Members of the school community are encouraged to take an active interest in the school and its performance and are welcome to attend all board meetings within the Public Attending Board Meetings Procedure (See p. 12).

Board meetings;

General:

• Meetings are held as per the triennial review schedule with dates confirmed each December for the following year.
• The quorum shall be more than half the members of the board currently holding office.*
• Only apologies received from those who cannot be present must be recorded. Trustees who miss three consecutive meetings without the prior leave of the board cease to be members. An apology does not meet the requirement of prior leave. To obtain prior leave a trustee must request leave from the board at a board meeting and the board must make a decision.
• The chairperson shall be elected at the first meeting of the year except in the general election year where it will be at the first meeting of the newly elected board.*
• The chairperson may exercise a casting vote in the case of equality of votes, in addition to his/her deliberative vote.*
• Any trustees with a conflict or pecuniary interest in any issue shall not take part in any debate on such issues and may be asked to leave the meeting for the duration of the debate.* A pecuniary interest arises when a trustee may be financially advantaged or disadvantaged as a result of decisions made by the board. E.g. Contracts, pay and conditions etc. A conflict of interest is when an individual trustee could have, or could be thought to have, a personal stake in matters to be considered by the board.
• Only trustees have automatic speaking rights.
• The board delegates [and minutes] powers under Sections 15 & 17 of Education Act to the Disciplinary Committee.
• The board delegates [and minutes] authority to the deputy principal in the times of absence of the principal.
• The amount the chairperson and other board members are paid for attendance at board meetings is set by the board. There is no payment for committee or working party meetings.
• Attendance fees are non-taxable within the agreed non-taxable amounts of $605 annually for trustees and $825 for the chairperson.
• Board minutes will be taken by a non trustee paid on a commercial basis on contract.

Time of meetings:

• Regular meetings commence at 6.30pm and conclude by 8.30pm.
• A resolution for an extension of time may be moved but will not normally exceed 30 minutes.
• Any business remaining on the agenda at the conclusion of the meeting is transferred to the following meeting.

Special meetings:

• A special meeting may be called by delivery of notice to the chairperson signed by at least one third of trustees currently holding office.

Exclusion of the public:

• The meeting may, by resolution, exclude the public (going into committee) and news media from the whole or part of the proceedings in accordance with the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act unless specifically asked to stay. The wording to be used in the motion to exclude the public is found in Schedule 2A of that Act. Excluding the public is most often used to ensure privacy of individuals or financially sensitive issues.*

Public participation:

• The board meeting is a meeting held in public rather than a public meeting.
• Public participation is at the discretion of the chairperson.
• Public attending the meeting are given a notice about their rights regarding attendance at the meeting.

Motions/amendments:

• A motion is a formal proposal for consideration. .All motions and amendments moved in debate must be seconded unless moved by the chairperson and are then open for discussion.*
• Motions and amendments once proposed and accepted may not be withdrawn without the consent of the meeting*
• No further amendments may be accepted until the first one is disposed of*
• The mover of a motion has right of reply*
• A matter already discussed may not be reintroduced at the same meeting in any guise or by way of an amendment*

Tabling documents:

• When written information is used in support of a discussion, it should be tabled so that it can be examined by those present. It then forms part of the official record.

Correspondence:

• The board should have access to all correspondence. Correspondence that requires the board to take some action should be photocopied/scanned and distributed prior to the meeting. Other correspondence can be listed and tabled so that trustees can read it if required.

Termination of debate:

• All decisions are to be taken by open voting by all trustees present.

Lying on the table:

• When a matter cannot be resolved, or when further information is necessary before a decision can be made, the matter can be left unresolved for future discussion.

Points of order:

• Points of order are questions directed to the chair which require an answer or a ruling. They are not open to debate and usually relate to the rules for the running of a meeting.

Suspension of meeting procedures:

• The board’s normal meeting procedures may be suspended by resolution of the meeting.

Agenda:

• Agenda items are to be notified to the chair prior to the meeting
• Late items will only be accepted with the approval of the board and in rare circumstances where a decision is urgent
• The order of the Agenda may be varied by resolution at the meeting.
• All matters requiring a decision of the board are to be agended as separate meeting items.
• All items in the agenda are to carry a recommended course of action and where appropriate supplemented by supporting material in the agended documentation.
• The agenda is to be collated with the agenda items placed in the agenda order and marked with the agenda number.
• Papers requiring reading and consideration will not normally be accepted if tabled at the meeting.
• Papers and reports are to be sent to the board prior to the meeting

Minutes

• The principal is to ensure that secretarial services are provided to the board.
• The minutes are to clearly show resolutions and action points and who is to complete the action.
• A draft set of minutes is to be completed and sent to the chair for approval before being distributed to trustees.

Review schedule: 3 years