Citizens have not been allowed to put comments into the record at a Stafford School Board meeting since April 14.
Now, it appears they will once again be able to do so.
For three months, the school board has cited “the COVID-19 pandemic and the directives of federal and state governmental authorities” for why no citizen comment time was put in place.
Residents were encouraged to email school board members, but these emails were never read into the public record at school board meetings.
Potomac Local News pushed this issue with the Stafford School Board.
In a July 13 email, PLN asked Stafford school officials when and if the school division planned to resume in-person public comments during meetings.
“Yes. The date will be announced in the near future,” replied public information officer Sandra Osborn-Peters on July 16.
The next day, July 17, the agenda for the July 21 meeting was posted to the county schools’ website highlighting the now allotted citizen comment period.
The school board’s July 21 meeting will be held at the County Government Center, located at 1300 Courthouse Road. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the school board met at 31 Stafford Avenue in Stafford.
The majority of the School Board has been holding in-person meetings at North Stafford High School since May 26. Those meetings were broadcast to the community on local cable TV, and on the web.
“This site [North Stafford] best supports the technology and social distance requirements necessary to host the school board meetings,” said Osborn-Peters.
With the changes, in-person commenters will have two minutes, as opposed the usual three minutes they used to have, and will be asked to only comment on items that are on the meeting agenda.
In addition to allowing in-person citizen comments, the board has now announced that it will be allowing emailed submissions to be read into the record. Prior to PLN’s questions, this wasn’t happening.
Comments can be submitted to [email protected] by 4:30 p.m. on July 20 to be read at the meeting. They must include the name and voting district of the individual.
The new citizen comment policy comes as state law now mandates a quarterly public comment period is now required as of July 1, 2020.
The decision to resume citizen comments comes after school leaders last week voted on a plan to reopen schools in a post-pandemic setting, choosing a hybrid of virtual and in-classroom learning. When it comes to soliciting feedback on the return-to-school plans, a school spokeswoman tells PLN it used multiple methods of online communication to interact with concerned residents.
“Electronic survey[s] with accompanying paper surveys for families without internet access [were sent]. The superintendent and School Board Chair have hosted two Town Hall meetings, one for staff and one for the community to address concerns and to provide updates and information…we have received thousands of messages from the public and staff in response to our surveys, in addition to regular email and phone conversations with these same stakeholder groups,” said Osborn-Peters.
Despite making its decision for the hybrid model last week, the Stafford School Board is set to once again hear additional plans on reopening the schools in the fall. Details are few, however, the agenda states “[Stafford County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner] will provide an update on COVID-19 and its impact on Stafford County Public Schools, Including the return to school plan amendments and recommendations.”
Having a citizen comment period amidst a pandemic hasn’t been a new thing for most surrounding localities, and it hasn’t been new even within Stafford County. The Stafford Board of Supervisors never stopped allowing citizen comments, even when meeting virtually. Submitted written comments were allowed to be read into the record starting at the first virtual Board of Supervisors meeting on April 7.
In Prince William during the pandemic lockdown, the majority of the Board of County Supervisors met at its usual location at the county government center and allowed citizen comments to be read aloud into the record, and allowed residents to dial in via a video conference app to have their comments heard via video during the meeting.
While leaders suspended in-person public comments during the coronavirus lockdown, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors resumed in-person public comments on June 2.
For the Prince William School Board, citizens can register to speak either in person or remotely. The school board did temporarily waive citizen comment time from April 1 to May 20, when comments were resumed electronically.
