By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The Board of Education is considering changes to the public participation portion of its meetings after speakers earlier this month refused to give up the microphone and led to the meeting’s abrupt adjournment.

Most board members say they want to continue the existing policy on public comments, which allows speakers to comment on non-agenda and agenda items, but also want to ensure time limits are respected and decorum maintained.

“It is unfortunate that the last meeting was not able to continue,” said board member Kevin Christie. “I would be at this point hesitant to touch or move comments on non-agenda items. I think they are interesting things to consider.”

At the April 4 meeting, board Chair Lee Goldstein first called a recess, then adjourned the meeting before taking up the planned agenda, after speakers who said they were upset about treatment of minority students in Westport’s public schools repeatedly breached the two-minute per speaker rule, exceeding the total 15 minutes allotted for public comments. (Goldstein was unable to attend Thursday’s meeting because of a family matter.)

On Thursday, in addition to taking up issues on the agenda earlier in the month, board Vice Chair Dorie Hordon said consideration was being given to adjusting bylaws that deal with meeting conduct and public participation. One possible change would be moving the time for public comments to the end of the meeting.

Hordon didn’t think that would be a good idea. “I personally appreciate the engagement,” she said. 

Hordon said that hearing public comments is an effective way of getting feedback. She agreed some decorum has been lost, but said it would be disrespectful to make speakers wait until the end of the meeting. 

Thursday’s meeting lasted nearly four hours.

Current rules also prohibit board members from engaging in dialogue with speakers on non-agenda items.

Board Secretary Neil Phillips said members’ silence sometimes gives the appearance they are not listening “If someone comes and shares and we sit here and don’t respond … We all have feelings … Is there a better way?”

Phillips agreed that time limits need to be enforced, otherwise a meeting’s planned agenda can get derailed.

Board member Jill Dillon said it’s important to hear from the public and that perhaps rules of engagement need to be re-established with guidelines prohibiting behavior like personal attacks.

“You can be angry and civil at the same time,” Dillon said. “It is important to have decorum and respect.”

Board member Robert Harrington said he does not support any changes to the public participation bylaw.

He called it an opportunity to raise issues and said he often learns things when members of the public speak.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said Westport’s school board has a more generous policy on public comments than other boards, but added, “I don’t recommend change [in the format].” He did say the board and administrators should have a way to correct mischaracterizations made by public speakers and to prohibit threats or personal grievances from being aired.

“That is not the purpose of public comment,” Scarice said.

Hordon said a list of parameters for public comments would be assembled for future discussion. One of her concerns about the last meeting was that some members of the audience wore full face masks to shield their identity. She called that a security issue.

Tara Welch, a parent, told her that those wearing masks were students, afraid to identify themselves. “We are not coming here to mischaracterize you. We have children who are hurt,” Welch said.

Christie said current bylaws allow the chair to terminate speaking privileges for those who breach public comment rules. 

Those who want to speak longer than the allotted time or bring up personal issues can do so through email or a phone call, he said.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.