Carthage R-9 Board set to approve policy restricting public participation at board meetings

A policy that would restrict what members of the public can say at Carthage R-9 Board of Education meetings is scheduled to be approved Monday night without any discussion.

The board's new public participation policy is included in the consent agenda for the meeting, which will be held 6 p.m. Monday in the Carthage South Technical Center community room.

Consent agenda items are presented in a block and voted on, nearly always without discussion.

The policy limits the number of people who can speak on a topic to three and no one is allowed to speak until he or she has talked to the superintendent or someone he has designated.

The present public participation policy, which has been in effect for 20 years is a simple one, at least compared to the new one.

P 0412 Meetings Participation by Public

To provide for full and open communication between the public and the Board of Education, the Board authorizes several avenues for the exchange of information, ideas and opinions. All of the following operate within the framework of the Board's scheduled meetings.Written correspondence may be directed to the Board, through the Superintendent, for consideration at a meeting. Statements of two (2) pages or less are encouraged. Complaints regarding personnel or student discipline matters will be heard and discussed in executive session only and not in open meeting.

A patron who wishes to have an item placed on the agenda will present the request in writing to the Superintendent. To be considered, the request must be received five (5) working days before the scheduled meeting.

From time to time, the Board will schedule a public hearing on matters of concern to the community, i.e. the annual budget.

All meetings of the Board will be presided over by a chairman with the primary purpose of conducting the business of the Board in a responsible and expeditious manner. Unless unusual circumstances dictate otherwise, the Board will not make a decision on an issue(s) presented by an individual or group during that particular meeting. The Board reserves the right to waive formalities in emergency situations within the limitations of state statutes.

The chairman will have the authority to regulate and limit public participation within the provisions of Board policies and accompanying regulations.

The new policy makes it more difficult to get on the agenda.

Instead of placing the request in writing to the superintendent, the following steps must be taken.

The submitting resident must meet with the Superintendent/designee in an effort to resolve the concern related to the agenda item. The Superintendent/designee will hold the resolution meeting within twenty (20) business days of the request.

Depending on when the resolution meeting and the board meeting are scheduled, a district patron might have to wait six to eight weeks to speak to the board- if he or she is allowed to speak.

If the item eventually makes its way to the board meeting, only three speakers are allowed to address the item, but only if they, too, have spoken to the superintendent.

It appears the new policy also limits the number of members of the public who can get items on the agenda to three.

If more than three (3) resident-initiated agenda items are scheduled for the same Board meeting, later resident submissions may be scheduled for the following meeting. However, if a resident-initiated agenda item is delayed under this paragraph the resident will be advised of this option to submit their presentation to the Board in writing.

Some of the strikethroughs from the proposed policy, which was written for the board (and copyrighted) by Missouri Consultants for Education LLC, which provides services for Missouri school boards, then edited locally, seem to indicate a movement away from public participation in the board meetings.

Among the items removed from the proposed policy:

A designated period of time may be provided for public comments at all board meetings.

And this one, which indicated this policy would not go into effect until after the board received citizen input.

Beginning July 1 and after citizen comment

The policy was first submitted to the board at its April meeting. The preliminary agenda for that meeting does not include any mention of public participation policy.

The agenda item is listed as PO412 (the PO is for policy).

Citizens rarely go to the superintendent asking to address PO412 at a board meeting.

Barring a major surprise, the policy will go into effect Monday without ci