A day after an emotional hours-long meeting at Edmonton Catholic Schools over transgender policy ended with the board putting off making a decision, the Education Minister weighed in, and said there would be ‘consequences’ if 'they don't get their act together'.

Minister David Eggen said Wednesday that he was disturbed by what he saw in the emotional board meeting the night before – and said he had spoken with Board Chair Debbie Engel, and he was monitoring the situation.

“Things broke down in acrimony, and I expect a higher standard from all elected officials here, generally in Alberta, and specifically from Edmonton Catholic,” Eggen said.

On Tuesday night, a three hour meeting of the Edmonton Catholic School Board focused on a motion to create a district-wide transgender policy.

The meeting stemmed from a controversy that started in May, 2015, when Trustee Patricia Grell went public with her support of a 7-year-old transgender girl, who wanted to use the girls washroom instead of the washroom assigned as gender-neutral.

Tuesday’s meeting became so heated a number of breaks were called – finally, the board decided to put off creating a policy until their next meeting.

“I urge all parties to come to a resolution here as soon as possible,” Eggen said. “And that all boards across the province should learn from this.”

The girl’s mother – who has asked to not be identified – was one of a number of people to speak during the meeting.

She told CTV News she was disappointed in what happened.

“I didn’t expect any less,” The mother said. “I think there’s a lot of miscommunication that goes on throughout the board.

“There is miscommunication as to what’s happened since January 2015 when I approached the school system, all the way to the present.”

Grell also spoke after the meeting.

“It’s very unfortunate because another month goes by now and this girl has no assurance that she will be protected, that she will be included in her school, and that’s what’s really said,” Grell said.

Among the people in attendance were former MLAs Laurie Blakeman and Thomas Lukaszuk – both in support of the girl and her mother.

“This particular school board is saying you can’t go to the boys or girls, you have to go to this separate one, and that’s akin to outing themselves,” Blakeman said.

The board will revisit the issue at their next meeting on October 15.

The Education Minister has the authority to disband a school board if he wishes – however on Wednesday Eggen didn’t say whether he plans to do so.

With files from Brenna Rose