Thursday, July 9, 2020

Restore Public Participation (BEDH) Tonight

The following email has been sent to the Richland 2 School Board.


I surely hope that the Board will vote to reinstate Board Policy BEDH this evening. Tonight is the night to demonstrate your respect for the public in Richland 2 School District.

When Board Policy BEDH is restored, will you please make a motion to add Public Participation to the next and future agendas? Otherwise, the Policy will be reinstated but there will be no agenda item for the public to speak.

Please also seriously consider scheduling in-person Board meetings, with appropriate social-distancing seating. It is important for the public to see you and for you to see the public.

If the Board continues to meet by Zoom, it is a very easy step to allow members of the public to address the Board via Zoom. Those wishing to speak can indicate their interest by 2:00PM on the day of the meeting. They should attend the Zoom meeting.

When Public Participation is opened, the Chair should state how Public Participation will be conducted. He should briefly review the guidelines, then introduce the first speaker and say, "Followed by (name) and (name). The Zoom moderator unmutes the first speaker. At the conclusion of the first speaker's remarks, the Chair thanks that speaker and introduces the next speaker, "followed by (name) and (name)".In fact, this method would work well for in-person Public Participation at Meetings. The delay between speakers would be eliminated.

At the June 20, 2020 virtual meeting of the Alexandria, Va. City Council, there were 38 speakers registered to speak. Watch how Mayor Wilson efficiently runs the public participation portion of the meeting:

Gus Philpott
847/971-7083

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