BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Brevard County School Board will vote Tuesday on public speaking restrictions that board members hope will reign in a portion of meetings that have often been rowdy and time consuming in recent months, according to News 6 partner Florida Today. But critics charge the change would reduce their ability to make their concerns known.
The proposed rules, which would shorten the length of time many speakers could address the board, have drawn criticism from many citizens who routinely visit meetings to air their grievances in front of the board. Some have viewed the proposed rule change as a gesture of disrespect or unwillingness to listen to community voices.
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Brevard County resident Julie Bywater, a member of conservative group Moms for Liberty and a frequent speaker at School Board meetings, said many parents consider the public speaking section their only way to make their voices heard because their calls or emails go unanswered.
“This is one of our few public avenues left to us to address the entire board on issues, limiting this more and more further disenfranchises your community, and continues to create division,” Bywater said. “If these marathon sessions are uncomfortable, perhaps this is not the job for you … These changes do not serve the community; however, they do serve to shut us out. "
Board members have said limiting public comment in certain ways is necessary to maintain decorum and keep School Board business running smoothly.
“We’ve has some marathon board meetings, and I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t feel like I am at my best after we’ve sat in these seats for 12 hours and are at that point trying to make a decision,” School Board chair Misty Belford said at an Oct. 12 policy development workshop. “We’ve got to be reasonable with ourselves and staff who … oftentimes they get here at five o’clock in the morning, and they’re still here with us at 11 o’clock at night.”
Under the new rules, public speaking time limits would reflect the number of people who signed up to speak before the meeting. Current rules allow all speakers to address the board for three minutes.
If 10 or fewer public speakers sign up, each speaker can address the board for three minutes. If 11-20 public speakers sign up, each may speak for 2 minutes. If more than 20 speakers sign up, each may speak for one minute.
That change could drastically shorten the length of many meetings. Dozens of speakers have arrived to speak at meetings regarding hot-button issues such as mask mandates, critical race theory and LGBTQ-related policies.
The School Board would also be able to change the time limits during the meeting. The text of the policy reads: “The above scale of time for public comment is deemed by the Board to be reasonable, however, should a situation arise that the Board believes additional modifications to the public comment times need to be made, the Board may make additional adjustments with a majority vote of the Board.”
Speakers addressing the board about issues not related to the agenda would each have one minute to speak at the end of the meeting. Meetings are currently recorded and livestreamed in their entirety; under the new rules, cameras would be turned off for non-agenda items. Meetings would adjourn immediately after the last speaker finished, and the board would not conduct any business after the cameras stopped.
The policy also includes limitations on signs brought in by the public. All signs would be required to remain below shoulder height to prevent blocking the cameras recording the meeting or the views of other audience members. No sings with obscene or “otherwise inappropriate” content would be permitted, nor any flags or signs attached to poles.
The School Board has not discussed the policy at length at its regular board meetings. At policy workshops, board members have suggested tweaks to the rules, but none have expressed a desire to vote against the entirety of the policy.
School Board Vice Chair Matt Susin floated allowing parents with children to speak before other speakers at an Sept. 21 policy workshop but did not gain broad support for the idea. Member Jennifer Jenkins has disagreed with other members about turning off cameras for non-agenda items, saying she believed it would only serve to increase division between the board and the public.
Susin said he would like to see public speaking times extended as long as the public comment section remained under an hour at most meetings, an idea Jenkins also supported.
But extending the time limits would force the board to re-advertise the policy, delaying the process by weeks, Belford said, adding that she believed the board needed to “get this in place.” The rule will still allow board members to vote to extend time at individual meetings, she pointed out.
If approved Tuesday, the policy will take effect right away.