Baltimore County school board members are scheduled to vote tonight on proposed changes to their twice-monthly meetings that would turn one into a work session and limit the number of groups that are allotted time to address them at the other.
The proposals to modify the two board policies are intended to give members more time to discuss issues in depth, board President JoAnn C. Murphy said.
"With the current format, it's very driven," Murphy said. "We often have three hours of procedural things to get through, and that's assuming that there is good preparation. ... We really don't get that time to discuss big-picture issues."
The changes would distinguish between business meetings, which would include public comment, and work sessions for "the review and evaluation of the school program and/or the development and discussion of board policy," where the public would not be allowed to speak, according to a draft version. In addition, people wishing to address the board would have to provide the "agenda item or educational topic" they want to discuss, rather than simply the topic, as current policy states. "We want to clarify for people what is appropriate for public comment," Murphy said, referring to times when remarks have dealt with matters that would fall under a county department. "We really want people to tell us what they're thinking, but to be focused."
A draft of the public-participation policy describes "stakeholder groups" - those typically invited "to report the results of their meetings and group activities" - as including employee unions, the county PTA and student councils and board-created advisory groups.
The proposal narrows the list of groups that regularly tend to address the board, eliminating organizations such as the nonboard-appointed advisory committees on special education and alternative programs, the diversity and achievement steering committee and the Baltimore County Education Coalition.
"It's our attempt to kind of streamline and use the time well," Murphy said.
While the board should have work sessions, limiting public comment is "not wise or forward-thinking," said Maggie Kennedy, the first chairwoman of the Baltimore County Education Coalition.
The board "needs a variety of stakeholder and constituent groups to fairly represent public opinion," Kennedy said, adding that the coalition recently has taken on several topics - such as overcrowding and the need for air-conditioned schools - that some of the representative groups recognized by the board have not.
