Santa Rosa School Board keeps limits on public comment after hour-long debate

The Santa Rosa County School Board on July 16 held a public hearing on proposed updates to its meeting and public-comment policies and rejected motions to remove language that would bar public comments on collective-bargaining negotiations and to remove a time reduction when more than 20 people sign up to speak.

Board members and counsel spent more than an hour debating whether the proposed policy would discourage parents and teachers from speaking. “The only thing by law that you have to allow is an opportunity for the public to comment on a proposition before you before you vote on it,” Board Attorney Harmon told members while explaining the board’s discretion to limit comments for orderly meetings.

Supporters of keeping the restrictions, including several board members, said the provisions protect the board’s ability to conduct quasi-judicial business and avoid inadvertently engaging in negotiations or operational decisions during public comment. Opponents said the restrictions risk silencing parents or teachers who are not part of bargaining but want to express views about pay or working conditions.

After public comment and board discussion, motions to strike the bargaining/labor comment exclusion and to eliminate the automatic three-minute limit when more than 20 speakers sign in did not pass. The board subsequently voted to adopt the set of policy updates as published for the public hearing.

The final, adopted language keeps: a nonagenda public-comment section limited to subjects “relevant to the work of the school board,” a list of categories the board proposed to exclude from that session (including bargaining, pending litigation and quasi-judicial matters), and a provision that if more than 20 speakers sign up each speaker will be limited to three minutes (the draft also retains a clause allowing the board, by motion and vote, to waive or amend time limits for good cause).

Board members and the superintendent said the policy is intended to balance free expression with the board’s need to preserve deliberative processes. Several members asked staff to publish the new rules and remind the public that speaker forms should be filed before the meeting begins to preserve four-minute speaking time.

What changed: at the close of the public hearing the board adopted the packet of policy updates as presented. Specific policies covered in the packet included revisions to meeting procedures and a set of other policies that the board moved to adopt later in the meeting.

The adopted policies will be published by district communications; board members asked staff to post guidance about when speaker forms must be filed and how time limits will be applied.