Dallas ISD backtracks on plan to limit public comment at board meetings

Dallas school officials backtracked on a controversial proposal to significantly limit the amount of time community members have to address the elected board. The district pulled the proposal from consideration indefinitely, DISD announced Friday morning.

Trustees expected to vote on the policy change at a December meeting. If approved, public comment would be limited to one hour total with individual speakers given two minutes to speak, down from the current allowance of three minutes. Time would have been restricted further if more than 30 speakers wanted to address the board.

When district staff introduced the proposal earlier this month, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told trustees the changes would allow the board to gain control of meetings and bring DISD into alignment with a new state law about public comment periods.

But some trustees weren’t comfortable with limiting public comment. Trustee Maxie Johnson compared the policy changes to suppression and said he and his community were outraged. Trustee Joyce Foreman pointed out DISD voters recently gave the district support for $3.5 billion in bond projects, so now is not the time to limit public input.

The district gave no reason for pulling its proposal. Officials did not say whether it would be brought back for board consideration at a future date.

“The proposal was intended to update the board’s public speaking policy BED (Local) by implementing new time limits for agenda items that would allow speakers to continue exercising their right to make public comment, while also allowing the board to efficiently maintain the flow of government,” a district statement said, noting that a second reading was to take place at a Dec. 3 briefing. “The policy has been pulled from the agenda.”