News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Alpena Public Schools Board Members Sarah Fritz and Anna Meinhardt are seen at Monday night’s regular board meeting.

ALPENA — The rules for public comment at Alpena Public Schools board of education meetings were a point of contention at Monday night’s regular board meeting.

Board President Eric Lawson recently made it a rule that audience members cannot clap, whoop, cheer, boo, or make other similar demonstrations during the meeting.

Community member Diane O’Connor was the first to take the podium during public comment, expressing her view that the board’s policy disallowing clapping during public comment is a violation of first amendment rights. O’Connor said she would be exercising her freedom to clap between speakers in support of their statements.

“Clearly we have a different idea of what constitutes disruption,” Lawson said in response once O’Connor had finished. “Robert’s rules gives a council the right to keep order in its meetings. Accordingly, the guidance is that councils can prevent people from those kinds of outbursts and disruptions… I don’t want to come down on anybody really hard, I’m trying to get us to a point where we can have civility and order. If you think about it, you’ll recognize that constant clapping after many, many repetitive comments drags the meeting out unnecessarily and doesn’t really contribute anything to the content.”

He continued, “I ask that you do abide by our policy and that we can have a nice orderly meeting where everyone gets to speak. That is, I’m sure you’ll notice, that is my priority, not to silence anyone, so I hope you will, again, abide by our new guidelines.”

Members of the audience clapped between nearly all speakers during public comment, and Lawson reminded the audience each time to respect the new guidelines set by the board. No one was asked to leave the meeting for clapping.

Public comment centered around transgender and LGBTQ issues and how students that identify with those groups should be best accommodated for.

Board Member Eric Hansen shared a few words about the direction of public comment at recent meetings.

“We’ve received comments that we should be focused on student outcomes and spending our time appropriately and I 100% agree,” Hansen said. “At the last several board meetings there has been a significant amount of banter from both sides of the aisle regarding LGBTQ issues.”

He directed attendees to look at the agenda.

“There has been nothing on the agenda related to that for several months,” Hansen said. “Therefore this discussion is kind of a moot point at this time. Now might it become an important conversation later, absolutely, I don’t know. But right now, as we’re trying to move forward, we’re not even talking about it, this is simply a time that is being consumed by differing viewpoints arguing during our meetings, so I ask that you just be aware of that.”

IN OTHER BUSINESS

~ The board approved the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs 2025-2026 delegation of school plan review and inspection to the township building officials in which the district’s school buildings are located. It is an annual process.

~ The board approved the snowplowing and removal bids from C and C Excavating, The Boat House, and A Cut Above Landscaping. Each company is in charge of snow removal at several school locations in the district.

~ The board approved the bid from Remer Plumbing and Heating at a total cost of $133,876 for the Filter First project for water filtration. The funding for the project will be completely covered by the 12a MI Healthy Schools grant.

~ The board discussed Policy 7544 Use of Social Media. Lawson said he received an opinion from Kallman Legal Group about the proposed change. Kallman said he had no issues with the change, and made a suggestion to change another line in the policy that was redundant.

~ The board failed to pass a motion to make changes to Policy 6320 Purchasing to add a section specifying that the board should not favor one Michigan-based business over another Michigan-based business, regardless of whether that business is local or geographically closer to the district than another. The section would have been added for clarification only and did not change anything legally. The board is still required by state law to choose the lowest bidder for projects, with a few exceptions which are outlined in the policy.

~ The board discussed Policy 0166 Agenda briefly.

~ Great Lakes Roof Preservation generously donated and completed resealing and coating the football stadium’s team building roof, valued at $4,420.

~ Local businesses and community members donated a total of $5,000 toward the Bullfrog sports app to support Alpena High School athletics.

~ Superintendent Dave Rabbideau said in his superintendent update that the state budget is still not passed and urged people to reach out to legislators. He also addressed the Supreme Court case Mahmoud v. Taylor which was brought up in public comment. The main concern with that case was that the school district did not have an opt-out option for curriculum where LGBTQ issues were discussed. Rabbideau clarified that APS does have an opt-out option that parents and students can use.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.