School District 57 has decided to move its Board of Education public meetings to an electronic format as part of its response to COVID-19.
According to a release, the change is being made to respect social distancing and to comply with Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry's order that restricts gatherings of 50 or more people.
Residents and those interested in being part of the meetings can live-stream them on the district's website.
"An opportunity for the public to address the Board in five-minute time slots during the 30-minute time typically set aside for public input will still be available," SD57 explains.
"The opportunity to contribute will be conducted through an email submission to the board."
A dedicated email address, publicinput@sd57.bc.ca, has also been set up for submissions.
The email submissions will be read aloud by the superintendent during the public meeting.
Email submissions must be received prior to 5 p.m. the Monday prior to the meeting and must contain a first and last name and a number for contact purposes should clarification be required.
Electronic agendas will be made available on the school district website on the Thursday prior to a public meeting.
Due to time constraints, only input relevant to the items included on the agenda will be considered for inclusion in the public meeting.
The next scheduled public meeting is set for Tuesday (April 7) at 6 p.m.
The public meeting previously scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 28, which was originally scheduled to take place in Mackenzie and will be in Prince George through the new electronic format.
Public meetings for the remainder of the school year are scheduled for 6 p.m. on May 26 and June 16.
