The city’s youth advisory committee is one of several municipal boards that has resumed meeting after being paused in March, but it’s when the group meets that concerns one city councillor.
During its Oct. 19 regular meeting, city council received the minutes from the latest youth advisory committee meeting and the minutes from the special needs advisory committee and the public works, infrastructure and environment advisory committee.
The youth advisory committee met at 9 a.m. on Oct. 7, with seven of the 10 youth members present. Mayor Fraser Tolmie and two other city hall employees were also present.
Meeting in the morning on a school day concerned Coun. Brian Swanson — a former educator and school board trustee — who reminded council that he has always been against students meeting at that time. Now that the three high schools are dealing with pandemic restrictions, they have moved to a block system where students take one class in the morning and one class in the afternoon for about 60 days before switching to a new block of classes.
“What this means is that you are (essentially) taking three classes in one day,” he said. “So if you’re on the youth committee and it meets in October and November, and it takes the whole morning, you are missing six classes in a normal 92-day semester.”
Swanson favours more youth participation, he continued, but thought the experience would be more meaningful if the students met on their own time outside of school, especially since they could miss a large chunk of the semester.
“I hope that is brought to the youth committee, and I hope they recognize the importance of attending school,” he added, “and they go to committee meetings on their own time and they don’t miss so much class time.”
In an email to the Moose Jaw Express, the City of Moose Jaw explained that it appreciates both school divisions’ co-operation to allow students to take time from class for the monthly committee meetings.
“The City of Moose Jaw believes the Youth Advisory Committee provides valuable experience to teens and young adults, giving them an opportunity to learn about municipal politics and potentially influence Civic direction on matters they find important,” said the city. “The meetings have always been held at their present time (9 a.m.), with consideration given to other extracurricular activities and/or jobs that may affect student availability for Committee meetings at another time.”
Neither school division has expressed concerns about when the youth advisory committee meets, although the municipality acknowledged that the pandemic-related curriculum changes might have affect this year more than others, the email added. The municipality wants the committee to benefit all parties and has contacted the school divisions for their input.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Nov. 16.
