Public comment at a school board meeting

[Guest Nicole]

Where can I find anything in the Robert's Rules in Brief book about where public comment can or should fall within an agenda for a school board meeting?

[Rob Elsman]

With respect to public bodies, it quite often happens that the bodies adopts rules for some kind of period for public comment, usually at the end of the meeting.  Where this is the case, there should be adequate rules adopted by the body to regulate how such a period is going to work.  RONR (12th ed.) does not have these kinds of rules.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 3/18/2024 at 12:04 PM, Guest Nicole said:

Where can I find anything in the Robert's Rules in Brief book about where public comment can or should fall within an agenda for a school board meeting?

You won't find any rules there, but such public comment periods are often mandated by state regulations.  Some states only mandate permission of the public to attend and observe (excepting executive session), while others require that the public be heard from as well. Does your state have a school boards association? If so they can probably provide guidance.  Or contact some other school boards to see what has worked for them.

I'm familiar with New Jersey school boards, where hearing from the public is required, but the details are left to individual districts.  My district settled on a set of rules that provided for, among other things, public comments limited to three minutes each, during two segments of up to 30 minutes each, one early in the meeting at which any topic on the agenda could be commented upon, and another prior to adjournment, with no restriction on the topic (within the bounds of germaneness to education, of course).  

These worked fine in an atmosphere where the public was generally supportive of the school system, often with one particular pet peeve.  Things may have changed nowadays.  I understand it's not a fair sample, but school board meetings that make the news nowadays seem dominated by rabid book-burners and Covid-deniers, so a different set of rules might be necessary.

 

[Josh Martin]

On 3/18/2024 at 11:04 AM, Guest Nicole said:

Where can I find anything in the Robert's Rules in Brief book about where public comment can or should fall within an agenda for a school board meeting?

Nowhere.

In the absence of anything in your School Board's rules or applicable law on this matter, your School Board is free to place this wherever it wishes on the agenda.