BDDH-1: Public Participation at Board Meetings

To provide for full and open communication between the public and the Board of Education, the Board authorizes the following avenues for the exchange of information, ideas and opinions.

Grievance through Established Policy and Procedure

Students, employees and any members of the public are encouraged to utilize established policies and procedures for offering suggestions or addressing concerns and complaints prior to bringing the issue before the Board. The Board believes that many issues can be resolved by communication with teachers, administrators and other staff and may refuse to address an issue if the individual presenting it has not first attempted to resolve the matter through established procedures and policies.

Written Correspondence

Written correspondence may be directed to the Board, through the superintendent, for consideration at a meeting. Copies of all correspondence directed to the Board will be made available to all Board members. Statements of two pages or less are encouraged.

Agenda Items

Any member of the public who wishes to have an item placed on the agenda will present the request in writing to the superintendent or designee. The request must be submitted pursuant to Board policy and received five business days prior to the scheduled meeting. The item will then be appropriately placed on the agenda. The Board reserves the right to impose reasonable restrictions on the number of items to be considered, the number of spokespersons and the speaking time of spokespersons appearing before the Board. If the meeting agenda is full, the Board reserves the right to reschedule an item for the next regular meeting. The Board may refuse to address an issue that has not gone through the appropriate grievance procedure. The Board reserves the right to waive formalities in emergency situations, within the limitations of the law.

Public Hearings

From time to time, the Board will schedule a public hearing to receive input on matters of concern to the community, such as setting the district's tax rate. The public will be provided notice of such hearings as required by law.

Public Comment

A specifically designated time will be set aside for public comments at regular meetings of the Board of Education. The following rules will be applied to the public comment portion of the meeting:

Persons addressing the board are asked to keep their remarks concise and to the point. The board establishes a time limit of three minutes for each speaker for the public comment period.

The period of time set aside for this public participation shall not exceed one-half hour.

No individual will be permitted to speak more than once during this period.

Any non-board member who wishes to speak during the official part of the meeting must register to do so. An individual may request to speak by contacting the board of education secretary prior to the meeting beginning. In addition, a request card shall be provided for this purpose and shall be submitted to the board secretary prior to the start of the meeting. It shall identify the speaker and the topic to be addressed. The board secretary shall submit all request cards to the superintendent prior to the start of the meeting; speakers shall be called in the order their requests were received.

Only district residents, district employees, parents/guardians of district students and owners of district businesses may speak at board meetings.

Speakers shall refrain from discussing personal complaints involving individual staff members or students.

Search the index for this section and the cross references to identify related policies, administrative procedures and forms.