Superintendent Christian Elkington, center, addressing the RSU 9 school board on Tuesday, April 11, over changes regarding public comment and how it will be conducted moving forward. Also pictured, from left to right: Student Representative Abigail Goodspeed, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Projects Laura Columbia and Chairperson Carol Coles. Brian Ponce/Franklin Journal

FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 board of directors on Tuesday, April 11, had a first reading on a revision of their existing policy regarding public participation.

According to Superintendent Christian Elkington, the revision comes under the advisory of Maine School Management and their law firm due to an influx of first amendment lawsuits.

“There are several lawsuits right now across the state of Maine, where public comment [and the] expectations have not been clear,” Elkington stated to the board, “or it’s perceived that they are not clear and first amendment lawsuits are the concern.”

Elkington referenced Regional School Unit 22, which recently had to pay $40,000 over a first amendment violation and is currently undergoing a second lawsuit.

The policy has been completely rewritten with a few excerpts kept from the original draft.

The policy retains the section that reads, “Only by a majority vote of the Board members present may the overall 10-minute time limit for public comment and/or the general two-minute limit on individual comments be shortened, extended, or eliminated.”

“I think the biggest changes are that we’re really going to try to limit it to 10 minutes,” Director Dee Robinson of Chesterville stated. “I think we’re doing a good job now. It’s just going to be a little bit clearer.”

The remaining policy has been rewritten to clarify that there are only ten minutes allotted for public comment and each speaker that appears to give a public comment is allowed a maximum of two minutes. Added to the policy is a stipulation for speakers relinquishing a portion of their time to other speakers, which will be strictly forbidden if the policy is voted into effect at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 25.

Speakers in groups are required to designate one individual to speak on behalf of the group, which was changed from two to three speakers speaking on behalf of a group. Residents from the towns that are serviced by the school will take priority over non-residents. The towns are as follows: Farmington, Wilton, Chesterville, Industry, Weld, Starks, Vienna, New Vineyard, New Sharon and Temple.

Others changes include the wording of personal comments towards staff and students. In the original policy it states, “Comments may not involve personal matters or complaints concerning specific employees or students.”

New policies have expanded on this further, adding in reasoning behind the omission of such comments, which include privacy, confidentiality, and due process rights. Elkington stated that this will include both positive and negative comments.

“One of the bigger changes here is that public comment can’t be used to talk about positives or negatives,” Elkington stated. “It just needs to be an opinion.”

“Someone would love to come up there and say 4,387 great things about staff,” he continued. “But if we allow that, then under First Amendment rules, we have to allow the other which would be negative comments.”

The revisions also clarify phrases such as “discussion of a personnel matter”, which is defined in the policy as “any discussion of job performance or conduct of a school unit employee, including complaints about them.”

Outgoing Director J. Wayne Kinney of Farmington expressed concern over people using public comment to make “absolutely false, vicious accusations” and asked what recourse the board has for preventing these types of comments.

“None of these changes stops the chair from stopping someone who’s being inappropriate,” Elkington asserted.

In the policy revision under section 3, policy G reads, “The Board Chair will stop any public comment that is contrary to these rules.”

Director Alexander Creznic of Farmington expressed concern over these changes, stating that “outrageous” comments should be allowed and a necessity.

“I can understand particularly where certain board members would feel uncomfortable, especially personal attacks which should not be allowed,” Creznic stated. “But at the same time, I don’t want to cross over into draconian areas where we just start shutting down comments that we may not necessarily agree with.”

Kinney challenged this comment, stating “I’m not seeing anyone anywhere propose that someone will be shut down for mentioning an issue. When they get into personal attacks, as has happened in a few school districts, or allegations of crimes being committed, they’re using that for political purposes. That certainly should not be allowed.”

Director Scott Erb of Farmington praised Chairperson Carol Coles for her efforts in directing public comment to encourage diverse and controversial opinion.

“We’ve had people take very controversial views without attacking other people, and I really think it’s been working well,” Erb stated. “But to Alex’s point, I think we have had people taking very diverse views respectfully, and I credit a lot of your leadership for helping create that environment.”

Coles stated that while she will continue to serve on the board for the remainder of her term, she will not continue to serve as chairperson of the board following June 30. No replacement has been named yet according to Coles.