The articles below is copied verbatim from the Calhoun County School Board site under School Board Operations. The document in it’s entirety can be located at this LINK
The purpose of running this portion of the School Board policy is that there has been some questions raised regarding the allotted five minutes of time and the Board members ability to respond to the person speaking. While it looks very offensive on the surface, they have placed the rule in their policy that they cannot respond to anything which was not on the agenda for the public to know was going to be addressed. Therefore, if a person wants a response from the school board, their topic of discussion must be requested to be placed on the agenda prior to the meeting and published.
Language pulled from the “School Board Operations” document on the Calhoun County Board of Education website, Items in bold with underline for the purpose of highlighting answers to questions that have been ask of Ridgeview News:
Public Participation at Board Meetings
The Board of Education recognizes the value to school governance of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest.
A. Commonly referred to on its agenda as delegations the Board of Education of Calhoun County (“Board”) provides a limited public forum during its regular meetings for members of the public to address the Board about matters relating directly to the programs, activities, and operations of the public schools. Persons who attempt to address the Board about matters unrelated to this topic will not be granted time to address the Board and will be asked to cease speaking and be seated.
B. The following guidelines will be followed for the delegations portion of regular meetings of the Board:
1. The Board requests that persons with complaints and/or concerns about an alleged violation of state law or the policies, rules and regulations of the West Virginia Board of Education relating to the conduct of the school system file a written claim under the Conflict Resolution Process for Citizens contained in West Virginia Board of Education Policy 7211 before bringing any such matter to the Board’s attention during the delegations portion of a regular Board meeting. Such claims are always filed first at the school building or department level with the administrator in charge. Likewise complaints about specific employees should first be brought to the attention of the employee and/or his/her supervisor.
2. No less than 15 minutes prior to the commencement of a regular meeting of the Board, on a form provided by the Superintendent (or his/her designee), any person wishing to address the Board shall print his/her name, write a very brief description of his/her topic, and sign the form.
3. All persons registered to speak shall be given no more than 5 minutes to address the Board.
4. By majority vote of the members of the Board in attendance, the 5 minute limitation may be extended.
5. When there is more than one person at a meeting who desires to speak on the same subject from the same point of view (i.e., taking essentially the same position as another person for or against some action or policy), the Board hereby designates its president to decide, on a meeting-by-meeting basis, whether or not to insist that all such persons appoint a single representative to speak for them rather than allowing each speaker to address the Board individually.
6. By this policy, and despite having no legal obligation to do so, the Board intends to designate a reasonable amount of time for speakers to address the Board. Ordinarily the delegations portion of any regular meeting of the Board shall not be permitted to exceed 20 minutes. Persons who are unable to speak due to this time constraint are encouraged to come to the next regular Board meeting to speak.
7. When there are more persons registered to address the Board than can do so under the foregoing time constraints, the Board, by majority vote of the members present, may elect to give each registered person wishing to address the Board a pro-rata share of the allotted time period referenced above which may result in each speaker being allotted less than the normal 5 minutes to speak. This is merely an option, not a requirement.
8. By majority vote of the members present, the delegations portion time limitation for a meeting may be extended by a specific number of minutes. This is merely an option, not a requirement.
9. In no case shall members of the Board hold any discussion, debate, and/or deliberation amongst themselves or with speakers about matters raised by the speaker unless the matter was clearly listed on the Board’s agenda such that the public was given notice that the topic would be addressed during the Board meeting. Where the Board agenda makes no clear reference to a speaker’s topic, no Board member shall give any direct response to a speaker other than to acknowledge and/or thank the speaker for presenting the information to the Board and/or to ask very simple and limited questions in order to be certain the Board understands the speaker’s message. Provided, that members of the Board may discuss whether any official action will be needed and if so ask that the matters raised be placed on some future agenda for consideration by the Board.
10. All persons shall speak with proper decorum and respect. All speakers are solely responsible for the content and effects of their statements/presentations and are advised to carefully consider what, if any, liability they might incur for defaming or otherwise harming any other person or organization through their speech in this limited public forum. The Board, by making this limited public forum available, assumes no responsibility for the statements of those persons who choose to speak and does not necessarily agree with the content of any statements made.
11. Removal from meeting. Pursuant to W. Va. Code 6-9A-3, the Board hereby designates its president to order the removal of persons from meetings for disrupting a meeting to the extent that orderly conduct of the meeting is compromised.
ADOPTION DATE: 03/14/16 REVISION DATE: 08/13/18
