Public Participation

It should be recognized that the Board Members receive their agendas with complete supporting information on the Friday preceding the Tuesday night meeting. This gives them an opportunity to study all supporting information and individually ask questions of staff before the Board meeting takes place. While many items appear to be handled routinely and with very little discussion, individual Board members have carefully considered the background information before voting on these items.

The public is invited to address the Board on any topic during the Hearing Session. For reasons of expediency we require speakers to limit their remarks to three minutes or less. Complaints against employees will normally be heard in Closed Session, and the District's Complaint procedures should be followed before discussion with the Board. Speakers must complete the information request on the Governing Board Comments Card within the first five minutes of the meeting and submit it to the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent.

Individual speakers shall be allowed a maximum of three minutes commencing at the time they reach the rostrum, to address the Board on each agenda or non agenda item and will be "cut off" if this time is exceeded. The Board shall limit the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. However, with Board consent, the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public presentation, depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. The president may take a poll of speakers for or against a particular issue and may ask that additional persons speak only if they have something new to add. (It is not permissible for individual speakers to give their time to another speaker.)