School Board Games: What's their Agenda?

It appears to be business as usual at the Douglas County Board of Education. Once again the public and board members have been ambushed with last minute agenda items.

In the past the board established a public participation policy that required the public to fill out a “public participation form." It was to be submitted by noon on Thursday before the Monday board meeting. The problem was the agenda was not published until noon of Friday. This was a scheme to keep public participation and comments at a minimum and discourage the public from attending meetings.

I personally heckled the former board chairman Jimmy Bartlett at a public meeting about the scheme. I asked him “when will the public be allowed to speak?” He replied “Certainly not tonight Mr. Bell.”

Eventually, the policy was changed to a 4:00pm Friday deadline.

So here’s the problem–the policy has no prevision to allow the public to speak on agenda items added after the 4:00pm deadline. And there is still no policy for public participation at special called meetings. How convenient! --- for the board.

The Douglas  school board and officials have a history of adding last minute agenda items. Some board members are left in the dark and are not told of the agenda change until it is handed to them minutes before the public meeting. How can they feel this is fair to the public or the other board members? How can a school board govern without having the ability to research the issues and debate them in a meaningful way?

Public pressure helped in the past to motivate board members to make policy changes. Perhaps it’s time to apply the pressure once again!

jb