LAFAYETTE, Ga. - After discussing a potential new public speaking policy, some Walker County Board of Education members are playing tug-of-war between more open rules and more restrictions.
The board has not had a public speaking policy since 2015, stopping anyone from registering to talk before the elected officials at a meeting. First, the board members took this position because they were in the midst of a lawsuit over their policy. Then, after federal judges declared their old policy unconstitutional, the board reasoned that people couldn't speak because they hadn't created a new policy.
Facing criticism from some Lookout Mountain parents, the board members held a called meeting Monday night to discuss general concepts they would like to see for the new policy. They hope to review a written set of rules during a work session Nov. 13.
"We have worked very diligently," board member Dale Wilson said.
The board proposed a key fix that should resolve the issue that federal judges pointed out in court orders in 2016 and 2017: the potential to delay a speaker forever. Under the old rule, a requested speaker had to first meet with the superintendent before going in front of the board. But the policy did not give a deadline for when that meeting had to take place, allowing the superintendent potentially to push it back forever.
On Monday, Superintendent Damon Raines told the board that, under the new policy, he would have five business days to meet with the speaker.
Still, elected officials were split on other important concepts. Board member Karen Stoker proposed creating a more open policy under which potential speakers simply had to sign up the day of the meeting.
"We need to have something in there that will allow our public to know that they are welcome," she said.
Other board members did not express an opinion about that idea. Stoker proposed it three different times during Monday's meeting, telling the other elected officials she wasn't sure where they stood. She still did not receive a firm response.
Board member Bobby McNabb, meanwhile, proposed limiting who could speak at the meetings. He said only Walker County residents and parents of children in the school system should be allowed to go before the board.
"We need some sort of verification process to make sure that we are speaking to someone who has an interest in the school system," he said.
Stoker asked whether this would keep teachers from speaking at meetings. McNabb and board member Phyllis Hunter said any district employee has to go through a chain of command, lobbing concerns first to their immediate supervisors.
"I just want it to be very careful," Hunter said. "You cannot undermine the authority."
She and McNabb said school board attorney Ronald Womack told them that employees of the system could speak at public meetings only about "matters of public interest." That would include tax hikes, the district's expenses or allegations of corruption. Stoker said that concept may be too vague.
Jim Barrett, a middle school social studies teacher and president of the Walker County Association of Educators, said the board's proposals are a "disaster." He believes they will prevent an advocacy group such as his from airing complaints in front of it.
"It's a chilling effect, another chilling effect," he said. " That is so subjective. It's going to get challenged. Once again, they're setting up a public participation policy without the public's input."
Barrett sued the school district over the previous public speaking policy in March 2015. U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy sided with Barrett in an order a year later. The board pushed the case further up the chain, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld Murphy's ruling. The board asked for another hearing with the appeals court, but the judges rejected the request in May.
After Barrett's lawsuit, Raines and the board said they no longer had a public speaking policy because their current one was tied up in the court case. After settling the case in June, district officials said they no longer had a policy since the judges struck down their old one.
The situation came to a head last month, when a collection of Fairyland Elementary School parents flooded a board meeting and demanded to speak about the school's cafeteria. The freezer stopped working this summer, and multiple cafeteria workers quit. As a result, workers at Ridgeland High School cook breakfasts and lunches in Rossville and drive them up the mountain to the Fairyland students.
Some parents have been upset about that set-up, believing the kitchen needs to be fixed faster. But Raines told them they couldn't speak at the meeting, and board members walked out to jeers from some people in the audience. Some Fairyland Elementary parents started a petition, demanding the board put a public speaking policy in place by Nov. 19.
The board likely will not meet that deadline. Even if the board adopts a new policy at its next meeting - which is Nov. 19 - Raines said such policies are always pending for 30 days before they officially go into effect.
Among other changes, the new policy would allow another school district employee to meet with the potential speaker before they went before the board. Under the old policy, the speaker had to meet exclusively with Raines. Also, the new policy would give the employee - Raines or someone else - five days to investigate the issue and return to the potential speaker. Under the old policy, Raines had 10 days to investigate.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.