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Board Meetings

CLICK HERE: 2023-2024 Meeting schedule, agendas, minutes, reports, and recordings

The Upper Grand District School Board is governed by a Board of 10 trustees, elected every four years during the municipal elections, and two secondary school student trustees (non-voting) who are selected by their peers on the Upper Grand District Student Senate. Student trustees, one representing the Board’s urban secondary schools, the other the rural schools, serve one year terms (August to July).

All trustees meet formally for Standing Committee and Board meetings on Tuesday evenings. These meetings are held September to June, excluding board holidays, days of significance and/or following a statutory holiday from 7:00 to 9:00pm. At the meetings, trustees deal with administrative and Board Committee reports on matters including program, curriculum, special education, facility services, transportation, property, accommodation, construction, maintenance, policy, information and computer technology and others.

The public is welcome to attend. Board meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. (public session) and are held at the Guelph Office, 500 Victoria Road North, and are also streamed online. Some meetings may be scheduled to begin at an earlier or later hour when there is additional business to be considered. Committee meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. and are held at the Guelph Office, 500 Victoria Road North, and will be recorded. The recording of the committee meeting will be available online the following day.

The schedule may vary from month to month depending on the number of Tuesdays in the month, and the month of the year. Dates and times are subject to change without notice.

“Closed” meetings of the Board, including Standing Committee meetings that deal with the following: personnel matters; personal information about board members, employees, students, parents/guardians of students; property issues, including school site purchases and disposition; negotiations with employee groups; and litigation affecting the Board are not open to the public. (Education Act s207)

Communicating with trustees

Trustees are dedicated to open dialogue with the communities they represent throughout the district. Your views, ideas and concerns are important to the Upper Grand trustees. You can contact trustees by email or by a letter sent to their attention at the Guelph Board office. To communicate with all trustees at once, send your letter addressed to the Chair of the Board.

Delegations to the Board

Individuals, organizations and groups are welcome to speak to the Board as a Delegation at a Regular Board meeting. To appear as a delegation you must apply in writing to the Board Chair on or before noon the Wednesday before the scheduled Tuesday meeting date. The request should identify the subject you wish to address, the organization or interested parties to be represented and the authority of the spokesperson. This allows for advance preparation of the agenda. 

IMPORTANT: Requests to delegate should be sent via email to the Chair of the Board, Ralf Mesenbrink, at [email protected] and copied to the Manager Trustee Secretariat, Jasmine Vorkapic, at [email protected] .

When making a request to delegate at a meeting, members of the public must notify the Board Secretary if they will attend in person at the Guelph Board Office or if  they will participate virtually.

Delegations are heard at the beginning of the meeting. A maximum of two spokespersons for each delegation is permitted. Written information supporting the delegation’s position may be presented with the letter of application. Each delegation has a maximum of 5 minutes before the Board and may be followed by Trustee questions of clarification. Although the Board will not enter into debate with a delegation, the presentation is considered and discussed later in the meeting.

Should delegates wish to make an audio/video presentation during their delegation, they should notify the Board Secretary of this in advance of the meeting.