Sai Akiri
Everyone attending a Berkeley Heights Board of Education meeting has fundamental rights, mainly the freedom of speech. Every resident or parent wanting to express their opinions, concerns, or questions is entitled to do so under the OPMA – Open public meetings act.
There are two segments during the board meeting for residents to speak. The first is during the public hearing on agenda items only, and the second segment is at the end during the public citizens hearing (any topic).
Public participation in board meetings is governed by district policy 0167.
At the most recent board meeting on January 5, 2023 the newly elected board president Ms. Penna stated a parent and a resident could not come back up a second time to finish his statement or question. But our district policy 0167 does not have any such language limiting a resident from speaking a second time.
The most recent Town Council meeting acted as a stark contrast. Residents were allowed to speak and engaged with their representatives. Their representatives changed their votes as a result of the feedback they received. They did not hide behind “this is a meeting of the council in front of the public, this isn’t a back and forth.” That logic is only a best practice if you lack confidence in your ability to govern. It’s meant to protect the District from leadership incompetence at public meetings. If BOE representatives need to hide behind fake guidelines at the cost of public input they should probably step down.
I sent the following email to the entire board. I hope the board president will acknowledge the district policy and issue a statement correcting the previous directive.
In the future, if a parent/resident is interrupted by a board member or board attorney during their allocated three minutes – I hope the stop watch will be reset to ensure the parent/resident gets their uninterrupted three minutes to speak.
Email to Ms. Penna:
Policy 0167:
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