A Dec. 20 School District 43 school board meeting on catchment boundaries will now be public.
Friday, board chair Kerri Palmer Isaak announced via email that parents can attend a meeting on catchment boundary changes for both regular programs and programs of choice.
"As per discussed we are happy to make this a public meeting on the 20th. The feedback that has been complied from our emails, meetings and from the board website will be presented.
"Of course this meeting is not exclusive to the Eagle Mountain catchment, we will be looking at a presentation that reflects information about all of the catchment areas that we have been addressing this week," she stated in the email that went out to parents and trustees as well as the media.
The switch to a public meeting comes after parents attended two meetings this week where changes were explained. As well, two Port Moody trustees had asked for parents to be able to attend the meeting after hearing concerns about boundary changes for Eagle Mountain middle school.
Originally, the meeting was to be for trustees only to hear the results of senior staff deliberations on catchment changes needed to ease enrolment pressures due the imposition of a memorandum of agreement following a Supreme Court decision ruling on the teachers' collective agreement.
After it was pointed out at Tuesday’s board meeting that the Dec. 20 meeting on boundary changes would not be public, Port Moody trustees Keith Watkins and Lisa Park sent an email to SD43 superintendent Patricia Gartland requesting a public meeting so parents and trustees can comment.
During the process, parents could provide written feedback on the proposed changes.
