When asked if the board would be willing to hold a town hall-style meeting, Chairperson Kathy Jones said that if the board did agree to a town hall, it would have to adhere to the state statutes. In the wake of recent taxpayer criticisms of the Board of Education (BOE), the board’s very operations are called into question. One aspect of these operations is the board’s interaction and communicative responsibilities to the public. This topic came up recently at the Board of Education workshop. When asked if the board would be willing to hold a town hall-style meeting, Chairperson Kathy Jones said that if the board did agree to a town hall, it would have to adhere to the state statutes.

One feature of BOE meetings which seems to concern the public is the process for public commentary. According to Gilmer School Board Policy on public participation during Board meetings, the Board allows

“public comments immediately preceding one of the regularly scheduled monthly meetings,” and, “any individual wishing to be placed on the agenda may do so by calling the Superintendent of Schools twenty-four hours in advance of the meetings requesting to be placed on the Board of Education agenda. The person will need to give their name and nature of the request…all presentations to the board are to be brief and are intended for the Board to hear comments or concerns without taking any action.”

This policy is rooted in Georgia Code. The last part of the policy, that the board will hear comments,

“without taking any action,”

implies that the Superintendent or Board can not respond to the comments or concerns stated by a citizen during a regular board meeting, which conceivably includes not answering any questions.

This seems to be the general interpretation of the code. A superintendent from a neighboring district says he or the board do not answer questions during BOE meetings. However, he says, that if a legitimate question is asked, he personally contacts the individual with an answer. He does this, he says, as a representative and voice of the board.

Doubtless, the idea behind these restrictive measures is to prevent any disruptions during meetings; Georgia Code discloses an entire section on

“preventing or disrupting a meeting of General Assembly or meetings of members”(O.C.G.A. 16-11-0034).

These measures may lead citizens to believe that the Superintendent or the Board is prohibited to answer any questions in a public forum, although answers seem to be permitted by phone or email—means of communication easily avoided.

However, Georgia Code also states,

“The county school superintendent and county board of education shall make rules to govern the county schools of their county.”

Presumably, these rules include the board’s interaction with the public. However, a Board of Education from a neighboring county has the following rule:

“The Board will not respond to comments or questions posed by citizens in their presentations but will take those comments and questions under advisement.”

The rule implies that under no circumstance is the board permitted to respond to citizens’ questions in a public forum. But, this same board makes a provision, stating,

“When issues arise that stimulate high community interest, the board may schedule special meetings specifically to invite public comment. In those circumstances, the board will establish special guidelines for participation.”

This rule seemingly does not prevent the board from answering citizen questions in a public forum, like a townhall style meeting.

When Citizen Joene Plancke came to the Gilmer County BOE Workshop on October 6th, she wanted to know if the Board would hold a townhall meeting, where the Superintendent and Board would answer questions by citizens and taxpayers in a public forum. Chairperson Kathy Jones said that, if the board agreed, the same rules would have to apply to the townhall meeting as apply to regular meetings, meaning the board would not be able to answer questions from the public, only hear comments. Jones said that it there’s nothing the board could do about that because the BOE is bound by state statutes.

However, in a recent correspondence with the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE), Communication Director Matt Cardoza stated that he knew

“of nothing that would prohibit the (town hall) format specifically,”

but added that certain questions would be prohibited, such as litigations matters and personnel.

So, although the Gilmer BOE is following protocol for regular meetings according to Georgia Code, it seems entirely permissible that the board could by law hold a question-and-answer style public forum, like a townhall meeting. Based on Georgia Code and FYN’s correspondence with Mr. Cardoza, the board can call a special meeting to address a particular concern of the public and set its own guidelines for such a meeting. In short, it appears that the BOE can hold town hall meetings and answer questions by citizens.

Now, the question is: will Gilmer County see a BOE townhall in the near future? And, if so, when?