VEAZIE, Maine — The RSU 26 board’s policy committee will form a set of guidelines for public comments in coming weeks after a year fraught with lengthy, contentious meetings.
Board Chairwoman Lisa Buck said she spoke to a representative at the Maine School Management Association who was surprised that the school district, which includes Veazie, Orono and Glenburn, didn’t already have a policy. At recent board meetings, public comment periods have been set at the beginning and end of meetings.
Members of the board and public received a list of potential policies recommended by the school association prior to Wednesday night’s regular board meeting. School boards aren’t legally bound to allow public comment.
Among the recommendations are: limiting the amount of time allowed for public comment, ensuring that speakers address the chair and not the board, allowing members of the public to ask questions but not enter debates, and allowing comment prior to board action on agenda items or during discussion of items that would concern the public.
During a difficult budget year where the public has called to be heard on cuts to positions at schools and the amount of money budgeted for the district, board meetings have sometimes surpassed the three- and four-hour marks.
“There needs to be a happy medium” that allows public input while respecting the board’s time, Glenburn representative Rose Thompson said.
Several members of the public urged that comments at least be allowed before the board has a chance to vote on any actions.
The board will include email response rules in that policy as well, after audience members complained that some questions they sent to the board went unanswered.
The board did not discuss how it would put the $265,000 residents voted to put back into the budget during the June 12 election, but Superintendent Douglas Smith said in an email that he has been meeting with administrators to discuss how they would like to allocate the extra funds.
“The one consistent theme was the need to improve our technology infrastructure, provide adequate technology staffing within the schools and provide grades four and five keyboard instruction,” Smith said.
Smith said a budget recommendation including the additional $265,000 would be vetted by administrators prior to a board meeting in July.
Maybe they will consider re-funding recorder since more kids do recorder than strings in Veazie, Glenburn, and Orono – same thing in 5th grade, more kids do band than orchestra…so why put all the money to the part of the music program that draws the least kids?
These meetings will have more to do with Veazie and Glenburns succession from the RSU.