Bill seeks to mandate boards hear public comment

Kentucky School Advocate
February 2022

By Brenna R. Kelly
Staff writer

While school boards have always done important work at their meetings, unless a tax vote or redistricting schools was on the agenda, those meetings rarely drew large crowds.

That changed this summer when issues such as mask requirements and curriculum brought crowds to previously sparsely attended meetings.

And the new faces wanted to be heard.

Under current law, school boards are not required to accept public comments, however most boards in the state allow the public to address the board. All Kentucky school boards have adopted policies on public participation in meetings, according to KSBA Policy staff.

The way boards allow public participation can vary, with some boards requiring speakers to address items on the agenda, some setting time limits and some requiring the speakers to sign up in advance, according to an analysis by KSBA Policy Staff.

But if a bill filed by House Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Regina Huff, R-Williamsburg, becomes law, boards would be required to offer 15 minutes of public comment at regular meetings.

Huff said during a committee meeting on the bill that while she knows most school boards allow public comment, she has heard from some constituents who say they could not speak at meetings.

“So this is an opportunity for them to speak and know that they have that opportunity to speak and know the time limit,” she said. Huff noted that board members do not have office hours so the meeting might be the only place a resident could speak directly to the board.

Jefferson County Schools suspended public comments over concerns about violence after meetings this past summer and fall devolved into shouting matches. In January, the board held a first reading of a new comment policy that would give students the first opportunity to address the board and allow for a maximum of 45 minutes for speakers about action items on the agenda. There would also be an additional 45 minutes at the end of meetings for comment about non-agenda items.As lawmakers considered Huff’s bill during the committee meeting, Rep. Lisa Willner, R-Louisville, who served on the Jefferson County school board, questioned whether the bill allowed for the comment period to be stopped if it got out of hand.

“This past summer we saw nationwide, not just here in Kentucky, a rise of death threats against school board members, against potential school board candidates,” she said.

Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, said she was at some of the Jefferson County meetings where attendees became hostile when told they had to wear masks.

“My concern is that this is coming after the calculated right-wing attacks in Jefferson County where people were trying to disrupt our democratic process,” she said.

Huff said the bill was not directed solely at Jefferson County.

“There were other counties where parents were feeling like they didn’t have the opportunity to speak,” she said. “There’s issues that are playing before us now where parents are engaged, and I think we should be excited that they’re engaged and want to participate.”

Rep. Ed Massey, former KSBA president and former Boone County school board member, said that during his 22 years as a board member, meetings always included public comment.

“The school board meeting is actually the meeting of the board, it is not necessarily the meeting of the community,” said Massey, R-Hebron. “We set the terms in our meetings, we give them a certain amount of time that they can speak and if it gets out of control we can stop it because it’s our meeting. And I’m concerned a little bit about intruding on that operational component of the local boards, because I think only they are best to determine what they need to do at their local meeting.”

Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger, a former city council member, said he believes public comment is important for government meetings, but noted that no other public body is required to hear public comments at meetings.

“I don’t know that a one-size fits all approach, especially for this particular form of government, is the best way of going about it,” said Koenig, who passed on voting for or against the bill.

Massey, who ultimately voted for the bill, also worried that it may be legislative overreach.

“I just have some concerns that we are delving into an area as legislators that is better left to the autonomy of the local school boards,” he said, “especially since we have done a lot of work to give them local control.”

The bill specifies that if no one asks to speak before the start of the comment period, board members don’t have to sit waiting for 15 minutes. As of the last week of January, the House had not yet voted on the bill.