Schools

BOE Proposes Time Limit On Public Comment

10-minute limit on public comment proposed in new bylaw

The Board of Education is mulling a new bylaw that would limit the time a member of the public can speak during its meetings.

The board by a unanimous vote on Wednesday introduced a new measure that if passed would for the first time limit to 10 minutes the time allowed each member of the public to speak during the panel’s meetings.

That measure, Bylaw #0167, is in large part carved out of its companion bylaw —#0164 — that regulates the conduct of the board’s meetings. The portion regulating public participation would be excised from that law and used to create the new bylaw.

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Large chunks of the old regulation serve as the basis for the new bylaw, such as addressing only the board president and making supporting documentation available to the board by the Wednesday before the meeting.

But a new regulation limits the time for each speaker to 10 minutes.

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“With this generous time limit, we'll keep people here to be with us to hear every bit of it to our motion to close,’’ Board member Anne Moonan said.

A final vote on the new bylaw is expected at the Sept. 11 meeting.

Moonan at Wednesday’s meeting said the new bylaw was borne from the marathon June 12 meeting, which brought out scads of residents and district parents in protest of planned changes to the Intermediate School schedule.

“This was a tough decision and I really thought very hard about it because I did not want to limit it because I did not want to limit any public participation at all,’’ Moonan said. “But when our meetings were going on until 2:30 in the morning and after public comment we still have a great deal of work to do, we did have to shorten our public comment to a reasonable amount of time.’’

Since January, the Board of Education has held 19 meetings. Some of those meetings have been special, emergency, meetings held in the afternoon hours.

But of those 19 meetings, only four have lasted past 11 p.m. One of those four, on July 10, lasted until 11:35 p.m., but only after the board went into an hour-long closed session at 10:25 p.m. according to meeting minutes.

Since the beginning of the year, only the June 12 meeting lasted until 2:30 a.m., according to meeting minutes.

“I think that 10 minutes still gives plenty of time for members of the audience to get up and say – if you prepare properly and you practice your speech at home,’’ Moonan said. “I think we’ll see that 10 minutes is really enough time.’’

Board President John Tavis said the time limit was an idea the board had been kicking around for some time.

“We’ve been discussing this for awhile,’’ Tavis said. “We’re always very cognizant of public participation but also the efficient running of the meeting.’’


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