Who Can Attend Board Meetings?
Citizens are welcome and encouraged to attend all school board meetings. If unable to attend the meetings, citizens are welcome to read about board action in the local newspaper or in the summaries provided by the Communications Office the following day. Minutes are not available or official until approved at the following regular meeting of the Board.
During a meeting, there are legally specified circumstances that call for an adjournment to closed session for discussion and consideration. These circumstances include personnel matters, land acquisitions or sales, legal consultation, and student or employee hearings. All votes, however, are taken in public.
Public participation at board meetings is limited to the open forum portions of regular meetings and public hearing agenda items. The audience shall not, at any other time during a board meeting, enter into discussion or debate on matters being considered by the school board.
Individuals who have questions, concerns, or suggestions should first contact the teacher or school administrator. Matters not resolved satisfactorily at the campus level should then be brought to the district administrator who oversees that program and then finally to the Superintendent prior to a forum with the Board.
Contact the school board by phone at (972) 564-4055.
Addressing the Board of Trustees
Public Participation
Forney ISD Board of Trustees allows public participation each month at the regularly scheduled board meeting in accordance with District Policy BED(LOCAL). The total time allotted for public participation is 30 minutes.
Public Comment - BED(LEGAL)
As long as the requirements of the Open Meetings Act are satisfied and the right of citizens to apply to the Board for redress of their grievances is not abridged, the Board need not provide a public forum for every citizen wishing to express an opinion on a matter. Reasonable restraints on the number, length, and frequency of presentations are permissible. The Board may limit the number of persons it will hear on a particular subject and the frequency with which they may appear, so long as the regulation does not abridge constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of speech and to petition, nor unfairly discriminate among views seeking expression.
Atty. Gen. Op. H-188 (1973)
Below are the guidelines for public participation at Forney ISD regularly scheduled board meetings:
Each presentation shall not exceed 5 minutes.
Delegations of five or more persons must appoint one person to present the group’s views to the Board.
Specific factual information or recitation of existing policy may be furnished in response to inquiries, but the Board shall not deliberate or make any decisions regarding any subject that is not included on the agenda posted with notice of the meeting.
The presiding officer or designee shall determine whether a person addressing the Board has attempted to solve a matter administratively through resolution channels established by policy. If not, the person shall be referred to the appropriate policy to seek resolution.
The Forney ISD Board Policy regarding public participation at regular board meetings will be made available for review by all individuals who are interested in addressing the board. Individuals are expected to review and follow the Forney ISD Board Policy regarding addressing the board. Failure to follow district policy regarding addressing the board will result in an interruption and end to the presentation and may be grounds for removal from the board room.
The Board shall not tolerate disruption of the meeting by members of the audience. If, after at least one warning from the presiding officer, any person continues to disrupt the meeting by his or her words or actions, the presiding officer may request assistance from law enforcement officials to have the person removed from the meeting.
Disruption – BED(LEGAL)
It is a criminal offense for a person, with intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting, to substantially obstruct or interfere with the ordinary conduct of a meeting by physical action or verbal utterance and thereby curtail the exercise of others’ First Amendment rights.
Penal Code 42.05; Morehead v. State, 807 S.W. 2d 577 (Tex. Cr. App. 19)