Is public participation at school board meetings important, Dublin City Schools?
Upcoming changes to be aware of.
Over the last two years, parents and community members across the country have been at war. You can characterize that war - as well as each side of it - in lots of different ways. But you cannot deny its existence. Or the fact that public comments at school board meetings have been one of the key battlegrounds.
The purpose of such comments is not just to communicate with the board, but to communicate with the board in public. Specifically, to bring awareness to issues that may be important for the public to know about and which the board may not be sufficiently addressing.
But DCS’s new superintendent John Marschhausen disagrees:
“…I think the purpose is to communicate with the board, it’s not to give people a public forum to air their political opinions. So if [the public] can communicate with the board, that’s the purpose of [public comments], communicating with the five of you. It’s not for folks to be able to stand up and communicate with the board in the community. We don’t owe [folks] a forum to share their thoughts.”
Accordingly, per Dr. Marschhausen’s recommendation, the DSC board voted to eliminate the 30 minute block for public participation on non-agenda items on March 21, 2022.
Does it matter? I am not sure, but it is worth thinking about. I think.
Things to consider:
The public is still allowed a 30 minute section during board meetings to comment on items that are on the agenda.
Most recent public commenting has taken place during the non-agenda items period - as what the public wished to talk about was not on the agenda.
The board policy continues to state that public participation will be permitted “as indicated on the order of business (Agenda).” This may include “items on the Agenda” or “any items, regardless of whether on the Agenda.”
Per board policy, the Board Agenda is created by the Superintendent, Treasurer, Board President, and Board VP. Presumably, those four would have to agree prior to each meeting whether to add public participation on non-agenda items to the agenda.
The 30 minute public participation section on non-agenda items has been replaced with a 90 minute coffee with Dr. Marschhausen and two board members (on a rotating basis).
Unlike board meetings, the 90 minute coffee will not be recorded, live-streamed or saved to the DCS youtube channel for public access.
Currently, the DSC youtube channel has 2.6K subscribers. Over the past six months, DCS board meetings have had between 300 and 3.5K views with an average of about 1300 views per meeting.
DCS had already been conducting public coffees with Dr. Marschhausen. And this was while the board was also allowing the public to comment on non-agenda items at the board meetings.