Website to monitor school board meetings

A new website was launched on Wednesday, aimed at keeping tabs on how the Calgary Board of Education and its trustees do their work.

Members of the Association for Responsive Trusteeship in Calgary Schools created the website "knowyourtrustee.com" because, they say, important decisions made by the board are too often cloaked in secrecy.

"And our mandate is really to deal with transparency and open information and responsiveness. So we will not be criticizing their decisions …  we are just looking at the process of how they make their decisions and make sure all the information is out there in the public," said Trina Hurdman, one of the group's organizers.

Most parents don't have time to wade through the long board agendas, so the website will have some of that information, she added.

The organization also plans to videotape board meetings and post the proceedings on the website, said Larry Leach, another member of the group.

Hurdman and two other members of the association ran unsuccessfully for trustee in the last election. But she said the group is not motivated by hard feelings over that outcome.

School board officials didn't return calls from CBC News asking for a comment on the organization and its website.