The efficiency and organization of BOE public meetings seem to be deteriorating, and increasingly, the FCPS BOE is making it harder for parents to provide input via public comments. This appears to be more due to a lack of a cohesively organized meeting than by design, but the result is discontent and frustration amongst the public.

In the April 19 meeting, 30 community members signed up to speak. The board spent over 25 minutes discussing the public comment policy and the challenges and then referred the issue to the policy committee. Overall, it was over 40 minutes from the introduction of public comments until public comments actually began. A 5-minute summary of the challenges and how the board will review the public comment policy (and satisfy the required communications to the public) could have taken 5 minutes. The board then fell back on the previously approved process of letting all the students who signed up to speak go first. This resulted in only 8 of the 30 parents being able to speak. The rest would have to wait until close to 10:00 p.m. Many, having been there since before 5:00 p.m., understandably gave up and went home.

Here are four things the board should do to improve the meeting and create a welcoming environment for members of the community that want to let the board know where they stand on issues.

1. Separate the student and public discussion time. The board has already created a special class of public speakers by designating students as a priority. That’s fine, but go a step further and set up two 30-minute windows. If students don’t use all of their time, give it to the general public, so more can be heard.
   
   

2. Run the meeting on a schedule. The current agenda is not on a schedule. It is merely a list of topics, which means there is no clock on how long a discussion can go as it wanders without recommended time limits. We’ve never seen an efficiently run meeting that doesn’t include a recommended start and end frame for each topic (e.g., Student public discussion from 6:20-6:50, public discussion from 6:55-7:25). Adjustments can be made if a topic needs a little additional commentary or discussion, but it’s impossible to for board President Sue Johnson to maintain an efficient and on-time meeting without one.

3. Keep the information not relevant to a public meeting to a minimum, and keep it short. There is a high level of material covered whose level of detail is irrelevant or not understandable unless you know the meaning of acronyms and the FCPS language.

4. Move your Policy, Curriculum, and FLAC committee meetings from weekday mornings and afternoons to 6:00 p.m. so people can comment publicly on things like Policy 443, the Health programs, textbooks, or curriculums. It would take the pressure off the community to descend on the only meeting they have time to attend. And research the feasibility of installing an ability for people to make public comments via a remote link or live phone.