ROCK SPRINGS – Written public comment will continue to be accepted by the Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees following discussion and a board vote Monday evening.
Written public comments were instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic to give residents a chance to voice their opinions on education issues while not requiring them to go to a board meeting in person. The board unanimously voted to continue the practice, as well as add an agenda item for future board meetings to respond to the prior month’s public comment.
The agenda item to respond to public comment comes after a change in how the board approaches questions issued during the public comment period. The board is referring questions posed to the board to Superintendent Joseph Libby, where he and other administrators will research and prepare an answer for the person asking the question after the meeting. Previously, the board chairman and other administrators would attempt to answer any questions immediately during the comment period.
While the continuation of written public comments did pass unanimously, not everyone agrees the practice should continue.
Chairwoman Carol Jelaco said some of the most argumentative thoughts come to the board as written comments, saying they are more of a rant than a question to the board. She said differences of opinion are understandable and tries to read what’s is sent with an open mind, though she doesn’t believe it’s possible to interact with someone to seek clarification on a comment submitted to the board. She said nothing can replace personal interaction.
“It seems people are so locked into their own thoughts, we as a society are failing to actively listen,” Jelaco said.
She believes people have stopped listening to one another to gain understanding of a situation and find common ground and doesn’t think any of that is possible through written public comments. Overall, Jelaco believes written public comments have outlived their intended purpose.
Board members Danielle Schumacher and Stephanie Thompson said they could see both sides of the situation.
“I go back and forth on it to be honest,” Schumacher said. “There’s times when I completely understand written public comment especially for out of area individuals.”
She also said the district sometimes gets keyboard warriors submitting written comments to the board who type things they would otherwise not say to someone. She also said a person can read a written comment and infer a tone to it that might not be intended.
“I can read something that may be a compliment in the mind of whoever’s writing it and it turns around and I’m like ‘whoa, I’m offended by what was just said,’” she said.
Schumacher thinks the appropriate forum for making a public comment is at the school board meeting and while she recognizes that public speaking isn’t everyone’s forte, but says listening to someone speak in person can give the board a lot more information based on how the speaker is addressing them.
Thompson said her compromise would be to have written comments restricted to only items on the agenda, which she believes would cut down on keyboard warriors participating. She said public comment periods are the public’s opportunity to speak about whatever topics they’re concerned about. She also said she supports limiting comment periods to three minutes per person and five minutes for someone representing a group, time periods followed by other local governing bodies.
Thompson said the city councils and the Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners don’t receive as many public comments as the school board does unless they’re facing a controversial decision and said a three-minute time limit is sufficient for those groups.
“People can angrily tell you what they want in less than three minutes,” she said.
Trustee Andrea Summers supports continuing accepting written public comments because they’re not as much as a public forum and has seen situations where allegations spoken about employees were incredibly harmful to them, even after those allegations were investigated and shown not to be factual.
“Words are like toothpaste, once they’re out of the tube, you can’t put them back in,” she said.
She said her concerns are that public comments where concerns about teachers or staff being singled out during a verbal public comment and those comments lingering through the district’s recorded YouTube streams.
Trustee Cole Wright supports continuing written public comments, saying he would rather see people in person, but understands it’s not always possible because people have busy lives. He said he received a lot of comments and emails from residents voicing their support of the practice.
Trustee Josh Sorensen also agrees with keeping the written public comment portion, saying it’s easy to get someone to clarify their positions over email, disagreeing with Jelaco’s earlier comments about the practice. He said the board should look for more clarity and understanding when addressing the written comments.