The Chilliwack School District鈥檚 school board has announced they will be holding an emergency meeting Tuesday night, to discuss the recent public comments by Trustee Barry Neufeld.
Board chair Paul McManus has confirmed that they will meet in-camera, to come to a consensus on how to move forward after Neufeld announced his strong opposition to what he鈥檚 called 鈥渃hild abuse.鈥�
READ:
鈥淚t will be a special, in-camera meeting, just with the content of what we鈥檒l be discussing,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd we鈥檒l be meeting tonight.鈥�
He has already had confirmation that the majority of the seven trustees will attend, although trustee Walt Krahn is away on holidays.
McManus said the meeting could be a fresh start for the board to discuss SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identifcation) issues, something they haven鈥檛 gotten around to yet due to more pressing issues with reconfiguration, over capacity schools and new school discussions.
鈥淭his is a bigger issue, a bigger conversation,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd this is where we start. Honestly it鈥檚 one of those things, with all the things going on in the district, that it鈥檚 a situation where we haven鈥檛 got to the topic yet.鈥�
That will change with this meeting, he said, and doesn鈥檛 change the fact that the policies are already in school.
鈥淚t鈥檚 embedded in the curriculum,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication. Frankly, I鈥檓 just trying to understand how it all works as well. I鈥檓 not an expert.鈥�
But he鈥檚 willing to learn, he said.
When asked whether the public would find out what happens in the meeting tonight (Oct. 24), he said he couldn鈥檛 be sure.
鈥淭o be honest, I don鈥檛 know. It depends so much on what happens,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he conversation itself is not going to be shared. But this doesn鈥檛 stop tonight. We鈥檒l carry on.鈥�
The next regular scheduled board meeting is set for Nov. 7.
