The meeting is hours away, but the fireworks have already started.
Ahead of tonight’s (Tuesday) School District 57 board meeting, Prince George District Teacher’s Association (PGDTA) President Daryl Beauregard has been informed he will not be allowed to address the board during the meeting, as he has in the prior two.
Beauregard has recently been very critical of the board’s silence on members of the public criticizing SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) education, and other similar programs and topics, that the district is required to adhere to.
In a previous interview, Beauregard told My PG Now that it has gotten to the point where some LGBTQ+ teachers and staff are feeling “unsafe” working in the school district.
You can read about that and get the full context of this story here.
Beauregard has addressed these concerns to the board multiple times, through two letters and in person at last month’s board meeting.
To date, he has not received any response from the School Board or SD57.
However, today they did contact him – to inform him he will not be allowed to speak at tonight’s meeting.
Beauregard told My PG Now that he was informed on Friday that he would need to request to speak to the board ahead of time – something that was not enforced in prior meetings – and that his request was denied this afternoon.
The Board of Education has rejected my request to speak at tonight’s meeting as President of the Prince George District Teachers’ Association.
— Daryl Beauregard (@TheBogie74) February 28, 2023
Section 5.1.3 of chapter 7 of the board’s policy manual states:
“The Board Chairperson, or the chairperson of a committee, in consultation with Trustees, reserves the right to decline any request to make a formal presentation.”
Beauregard said he was told that all presenters at meetings will now have to request to speak, provide their topic, and be approved before being given the mic at a meeting. He said this policy came into effect last year, but was only used one or two times.
“It is disappointing,” Beauregard said. “These are publicly elected officials and are supposed to be accountable to the voters. Voters include myself, and my members.”
He said SOGI sets out guidelines on how schools should promote and protect students and public education values related to sexual identity.
“By remaining silent on some of these policies… they are sending a message, perhaps unintentionally, that these values are not important to them.”
Beauregard said he would have directly quoted SOGI policy at the meeting.
“It has some excellent wording on how public education and our public education spaces are to be welcoming and inclusive to all,” he said.
“It certainly hasn’t felt, over the last couple of months, that the board has really been paying attention to that need.”
In prior meetings and under previous boards, Beauregard said it was “automatic” that he got to speak, as the PGDTA President.
A secondary concern of his is that parents, and people not directly involved, will have more hoops to jump through to be heard by the board.
In previous meetings, speakers would simply show up and put their names on a sheet of paper.
“It does send a bit of a message that, perhaps, discourse is not welcome at meetings,” Beauregard said.
“Requests are vetted now and may not be accepted. This is a public board meeting where publicly elected officials are supposed to be doing their work and being held accountable by the voters. I find that a bit difficult.”
He added that he does not think the floor should be “wide open,” because that is exactly what first sparked this whole situation back in December.
Because of this, Beauregard said he will not attend tonight’s meeting as a statement – though he will continue to place requests to speak in future meetings.
“I really think as trustees of the board and presidents of the union, we all should be working together to make sure our schools are welcoming, inclusive places of the highest quality of learning for all students, regardless of their identity,” he said in closing.
A school board meeting is held at 4:00 on the last Tuesday of every month, including today.
They are open to the public and hosted in the School District office, and are recorded and posted on the District’s YouTube channel.
School Board Chair Rachael Weber has not responded to any previous interview requests from My PG Now.