When the Lincoln Board of Education revised its public comment rules last May, board members said the change would bring Lincoln Public Schools more in line with other school districts in the state.
The most notable changes included reducing speakers’ time from five minutes to three and setting limits on when speakers could sign up.
But the ways school boards across Nebraska approach public participation at meetings — which has become an outlet for parents and patrons to voice concerns over a variety of issues like masks and critical race theory — is almost as varied as the number of districts in the state.
“There’s a whole slew of ways of doing it,” said David Jespersen, public information officer with the Nebraska Department of Education.
At LPS, officials say the revisions to the overarching policy and the underlying regulations that govern public comment flesh out practices already in existence, such as defining what people can bring to meetings.
They also argue the reduction in speakers’ time allows more people to speak in the first public comment period, which comes before agenda items, while allowing the board to get to its business. If there are still more speakers after an hour, the board’s practice is to hold another session at the end of the meeting.
LPS board member Bob Rauner, who serves on the Nebraska Association of School Board Board of Directors, said the changes were, in part, the result of conversations he had with board members from other districts and how they run public comment.
But, as other district’s policies show, there’s not one agreed-upon way to do it.
At OPS, speakers typically have five minutes to speak, although the board has reduced it in the past to accommodate more speakers — as it did at a meeting last August to allow more people to talk about masking.
At Grand Island, speakers also have five minutes, but if there are three or more, it’s three minutes. Meanwhile, at Millard Public Schools, the state’s third-largest district behind LPS, has a two-minute limit.
At other large districts it varies: Papillion-La Vista it’s three; Elkhorn, five; Omaha Westside, 2½. Bellevue, three; Kearney, five.
While the NASB doesn’t keep data on how school boards run public comment, Director of Communications Matt Belka said it’s likely different district-to-district.
“I would guess that’s what we’d find in asking all 240 (would be) 240 unique answers,” Belka said in an email.
The Nebraska Open Meetings Act allows public bodies to “make and enforce reasonable rules and regulations” regarding public participation at meetings.
And LPS is not alone in revisiting its public comment policies following a slew of marathon meetings in the past two years.
The Nebraska State Board of Education set a two-hour cap on public comment at its January meeting and set speaker limits to five minutes, although the board can reduce that amount.
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The move was in part informed by a letter from Attorney General Doug Peterson admonishing the board for restricting the number of speakers at a June meeting in Kearney, in which over 100 people came to testify about the state’s proposed health education standards but only 75 were allowed to speak.
But the revision also aimed to provide better clarity on the rules, which were typically decided at each meeting.
“I think boards are going to address these things more formally,” Jespersen said.
LPS Board President Don Mayhew said the process to revise the rules was thorough, first starting in the board’s Governmental Relations and Community Engagement before reaching the full board.
Board members consulted best practices — including how other public bodies approach public participation — and legal requirements involved. The NU Board of Regents, for example, limits speakers to three minutes.
“We’re not shooting from the hip making decisions like this,” Mayhew said.
He pointed to the fact that the board approved the revision at its May organizational meeting, when it typically looks at board operating procedures. It would have been different to enact the changes months ago when the number of speakers was high, Mayhew said.
“I think that’s one of those things that no matter what we did, we might’ve been opening up ourselves to criticism.”
Samuel Lyon, who led an unsuccessful recall campaign against the Lincoln mayor, has been a frequent critic of the change.
He said “the sum of all of the restrictions in total” essentially equals “retribution for coming and speaking, for the offensive and coming and telling the board and what we like and what we don’t like.”
“The time limit specifically, it cuts your time by nearly half, which is a huge a reduction,” he said.
Lyon, who homeschools his children, has also taken particular issue with a change to how the board broadcasts its meeting.
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The board typically showed the faces of those speaking in public comment. But at is Oct. 26 meeting, the feed started showing speakers’ backs and the entire board.
Associate Superintendent John Neal told the board staff switched the orientation because people waiting in overflow rooms — which LPS used during the pandemic to maintain social distancing when a large number of people showed up — expressed a “lack of feel” of being in the board room.
But Lyon contends the change “dehumanizes” speakers, and at the board’s last meeting in June, he attempted to show his displeasure with the change by attempting to speak on the other side of the podium.
Mayhew said there are no plans to go back to the old broadcast orientation.
While critics — like those with the grassroots group Nebraskans Against Government Overreach — say the rules are draconian, some of the revisions do match other district’s practices.
LPS, for example, now requires speakers sign up no more than 30 minutes before a meeting and 15 minutes after it starts. Previously, speakers could sign up at any point during the meeting.
At OPS, speakers must submit a request to be heard form no later than five minutes after a meeting has started. There are similar rules in place in other districts, including Millard.
Rauner also said the three-minute limit falls roughly within the two- to -five-minute range the biggest districts in Nebraska use and added making direct comparisons can be difficult because of LPS’ size.
Ultimately, it comes down to a misconception that public comment is a time for debate, Rauner said. He said he regularly meets with constituents at a local coffeeshop to hold a dialogue.
“Why are we obsessing about three minutes?” he said.
While board meetings are open to the public, he reiterated the point he made in May that they are meetings held in public, not with the public.
“Whether people like it or not, we still have a school district to run,” Rauner said.
LPS has used the new rules for three meetings now. A spiffy electric timer now keeps track of speaker’s time. Some have requested more time after the timer runs out, but Mayhew hasn’t budged.
“Overall, I think it’s working well,” he said. “I think that most people are able to say what they want to say in three minutes.”
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Contact the writer at zhammack@journalstar.com or 402-473-7225. On Twitter @HammackLJS
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