The Rainbow District School Board's final meeting before the start of the 2018-19 school year was a spirited one, as supporters of barred trustee Larry Killens showed up in numbers to voice their displeasure.
Trustee Larry Killens represents the Manitoulin area, and in a unanimous decision at a July 3 meeting, was barred from all Rainbow Board meetings until Nov. 30 when his current term is up.
Roughly a dozen of Killens' supporters showed up to the Aug. 28 meeting at the Rainbow Board office to voice their disapproval of Killens being barred, among other things.
"It's a whole history with the board, whether it's them banning parents who are a little too informed or banning Larry because he's a little too vocal or is asking too many questions at meetings," said Chantelle Gorham, who has butted heads with the Rainbow Board in the past over an accommodation review in 2016 that threatened to close a number of RDSB schools.
"We're here to support Larry, but also the parents, teachers and students that are affected by this board and their decisions. We know now why they are closing schools, because of things like director (Norm) Blaseg's $60,000 raise, and looking at building a $7 million soccer dome, they're sending superintendents overseas to recruit international students ... it's no wonder with where their money is going, it's not toward schools, it's toward pet projects."
As 5 p.m. hit the clock, Killens walked through the doors of the Ernie Checkeris board room inside the Rainbow Board office and took a seat at the trustee table.
Things remained civil as trustees passed motions to approve minutes of past meetings, swore in their new student trustee, and discussed curriculum changes that have been passed down by the Ontario government.
Killens listened attentively, but was noticeably without the meeting package or agenda that his fellow trustees had at their disposal. He raised his hand to vote in approval of a few motions, opposed a few others, but remained silent until a pair of agenda items with his name on them were brought up.
Killens was to be approved for a leave of absence from the special July 19 board meeting as well as the Aug. 28 meeting.
When board chair Doreen Dewar read the motion to grant Killens a leave of absence, things went off the rails to the point that Dewar called a five minute recess.
Killens raised his hand while the motion was being read, while speaking into his microphone that he had a question.
"Sorry, but we do not take questions at this time," Dewar responded.
"I didn't ask for that motion," said Killens. "I wasn't there, July 3 I was banned and now you're asking me to be excused from the July 19 meeting?"
The motion was passed and as Dewar moved to read the next motion that would grant Killens a leave of absence from the Aug. 28 meeting, he interjected.
"Point of order, I challenge the chair," said Killens.
"I will ask you not to interrupt the proceedings of this meeting," said Dewar. "This is a meeting in progress. I will ask you to refrain from interrupting. If you can not refrain, I will ask you to leave. We now have a motion on the floor."
Again, Killens piped up, "how can you ask me to leave? Under what law?"
With that, Dewar called a five-minute recess, and Killens' supporters could stay quiet no longer.
Sarcastic applause and chants of "shame" rang through the boardroom as Dewar and the trustees rose from their chairs.
"I thank you for coming out tonight, it's good to see you here, I love to see you here, we all do ... you should be a role model however, we have a student trustee here and if you can't be a role model for your community, then you should for our student trustee," said Dewar.
When the board returned from recess, Dewar resumed reading the motion to grant Killens a leave of absence from the evening's meeting.
Killens again, from his seat at the trustee table piped up, "Madam Chair, I'm here."
As Dewar moved to the next agenda item, murmurs of "you've got to be kidding," and "seriously" were audible throughout the boardroom, prompting Dewar to address the audience.
"This is not a meeting about trustee Killens, this is a meeting about educating students," said Dewar.
A few shouts and comments were made throughout the remainder of the meeting, but were ignored by the board, as was Killens, who was not given copies of memos that were passed around the table as the board went about their business.
Protesters gathered in the parking lot following the meeting to offer their support to Killens, who says he'll be attending the rest of the board meetings until he's told otherwise.
"I emailed them after I was barred and told them I would be attending tonight, and I wasn't given any response," said Killens. "Emotions were obviously high in there tonight ... I just ... I want them to tell me why I've been barred. I can't get my head around it."
Dewar spoke to the media following the meeting and cleared the air in a sense as to what had just happened.
"It will be 30 years on this board in the spring and I've absolutely never seen anything like this," said Dewar. "The issue of Larry Killens has been debated and eight of eight trustees voted in favour of having him barred from meetings until Nov. 30."
Members of the audience had shouted at Dewar and other trustees that ignoring Killens was a form of bullying. Dewar explained post-meeting that Killens was no more than a member of the public and he was welcome to attend, but not as a voting member of the board.
"He's entitled to attend, his votes aren't registered, but he has every right to be here, we do not accept questions from the public at these meetings," said Dewar. "He chose to sit at the table, I'm not going to try to move him."
As for the motions to grant Killens a leave of absence, these motions will appear on the rest of the board's meetings, so long as Killens remains barred.
"Trustee Killens is still being paid, this is our policy and we try our best to adhere to our policies," Dewar said.
The next board meeting will be Sept. 25 at 5:15 p.m.
