Cd'A trustees consider comment reversal

COEUR d'ALENE - Public comments on all school issues may once again be welcome at Coeur d'Alene School District board meetings.

In October, trustees stopped accepting public comments that are not related to items on the meeting's agenda, and moved toward enacting a policy supporting that position. At the time, Superintendent Hazel Bauman said the policy was needed to streamline the meetings, and "rein in" commenters who spoke regularly about the same issues at multiple board meetings.

At Monday's meeting, Bauman recommended to trustees that they consider putting a new policy in place that would allow members of the public to speak to the board about other school issues not on the agenda.

"Certainly, we want to make sure that this is a board meeting held in public, and have all of the decorum and the formality that that deserves, but I believe that allowing the public to share their thoughts and ideas, beyond the community chats which have been sporadically attended, that we should at least re-look at that," Bauman said to trustees.

Bauman said she would like to have the district's policy review committee prepare a new proposal for the board.

The policy developed last fall that limited public comment went before the board in December. Four of the five trustees voted in favor of tabling the decision with former board chair Edie Brooks McLachlan, who resigned from her position just hours before Monday's meeting, casting the only dissenting vote. The tabled public comment policy did not return to the board for discussion. Although the policy was never made official, it was generally enforced at meetings.

Trustee Bill Hemenway, who suggested in December that the board step back from making a decision on the policy, said he concurred with Bauman's recommendation.

Trustee Stephanie Powers urged the district to better communicate scheduled board workshops with the public. Before voting on policies and procedures, board members often meet to learn about the issues they need to consider during workshops that are open to the public.

"I think it goes far beyond the walls of a board meeting to begin that engagement of the public," Powers said. "When it's here, oftentimes I think the public feels that it's too late to do anything. So we need to do that sooner rather than later, to have them involved in the process."

Hemenway and Powers are in their last weeks on the board. They will be replaced on July 1 by trustees-elect Terri Seymour and Tom Hamilton, who observed Monday's meeting.

Seymour told The Press she was pleased to hear Bauman's recommendation.

"This has probably been one of the biggest complaints from the public regarding the board and the school district, the lack of public input," Seymour said. "The public deserves our respect and I don't believe that it's too great of an imposition for us to allow it."

Hamilton said he agrees with Powers that the workshops should be better publicized for public attendance, and held at times when most members of the public are able to attend.

"I think it's a great idea that they're reversing what is a very misguided policy in the first place," Hamilton said. "Trustees serve at the will of the taxpayers and the parents."

Dan Gookin, a citizen, addressed the trustees in December about the policy, and said his feelings are the same now.

"The board is supposed to represent the public. They're limiting the public's comments, not the comments of board members, and not the comments of the administration. To me, that just seems rather biased," Gookin said.

For the average person, the board meeting is the place for parents to bring issues when they feel they're getting no attention, he said.

"The board is telling that person that they have to sit down and shut up, and that frustrated parent has no recourse," Gookin said. "To me, that would be disappointing."