Sarasota School Board Postpones Public Comment Rule Changes

SARASOTA, FL — The Sarasota County School Board tabled a proposal to make changes to its public comment procedure, worried any decision right now would further antagonize already contentious meetings.

The Board considered the item after several meetings where large crowds showed up to discuss controversial items not always on the agenda, like critical race theory or masking. The board has been increasingly relying on police officers to remove disruptive citizens, according to a report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Proposed changes would limit non-agendized items to the end of the meeting and reserving the main public comment portion for agendized items. The proposed rules would also limit speaking time in inverse proportion to how many speakers are present. For example, if there are between one and 10 speakers, each speaker would get three minutes. If there are between 11 and 20 speakers, each would get two minutes, and with more than 20 speakers, each would get one minute.

On Tuesday, board members agreed that they needed to shorten public comment period and find a way to narrow down non-agendized items. Still, Board members Karen Rose and Bridget Ziegler cautioned against it, saying it would result in “negative optics.” Board member Shirley Brown asked the board to give their input to the board secretary, and review potential changes at future meetings.