News Photo by Reagan Voetberg The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education listens to the finance and human resources annual update at the APS board workshop meeting Monday night.

ALPENA — Public comment was once again the highlight of the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education workshop meeting Monday night.

Board President Eric Lawson followed through with requesting that the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office send a deputy to the meeting. Two deputies were present.

Lawson read an additional set of public comment rules to participants on top of the usual rules.

The usual rules include members of the public stating their name and address, directing their comments to the board and not members of staff or the audience, and speaking for not more than three minutes.

Lawson then read the “protection from annoyance by non-members in a meeting” from Robert’s Rules of Order. Robert’s Rules describe standard board procedure and are used across the U.S.

“An assembly has the right to protect itself from annoyance by non-members and its full authority in this regard can be exercised by the chair acting alone,” Lawson said. “Individuals addressing the board must take into consideration the rules. A common courtesy public comment should not be used to make personal attacks against a school board member or school district employee by name. However, you can name a board member in reference to his or her actions in a meeting.”

Lawson said he interprets this to mean that attacks of criticism for a board member’s personal choices outside a meeting or other aspects of their personal lives are off limits. Additionally, public comment does not exist for non-members to get into sparring matches with each other attacking each other or engaging in retorts. Such comments will be considered out of order. “However, if something that someone says jogs your brain and you think the board should know? By all means, come up and tell us,” he said.

Policy states that in the event that things don’t go smoothly, the presiding officer may request any individual to stop speaking and/or leave the meeting when that person behaves in a manner that is disruptive and may request the removal of that person. Accordingly, applause, cheering, booing, or other demonstrations will not be allowed.

“Thank you for attending our meeting,” Lawson said. “Thank you for your engagement.”

Two community members spoke in support of the board and the work they do.

“I want to tell you thank you for doing the hard work in the public school system. Thank you for trying to do it to the best of your ability,” Kevin Osborne said.

“The community can’t be trusted to get up and support the board,” Joann Pinkerton said. “They need to be supported if you want to criticize the board and say they are not focused on teaching. Then come up to the podium. And bring up those points of how they can help the students in Alpena, not constantly criticize them, that solves no purpose.”

Yvonne LeFave Johnson spoke about the events of the last board meeting on Aug. 25, where a few people from other counties in Michigan participated in public comment.

“One of the outside agitators spewed hate speech during his public comments, as we also heard again tonight,” Johnson said, referencing a comment made at the last meeting where a member of the public suggested that transgender students be put in special education classrooms.

Community member Michael Kramer echoed that comment at Monday night’s meeting, saying that transgender students should be removed from the normal student population and placed in the special education system, and calling them psychologically troubled.

Some comments were made in reference to the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, a political commentator known for his debates with students on college campuses.

Community member Bruce Heath called for a moment of silence in his public comment in honor of Kirk.

The board reviewed their self-assessment with Kelli Horst from the Michigan Association of School Boards and discussed issues related to political disagreement and harassment from the community.

“Honestly, with the group that’s in front of us here, the board, I feel very comfortable expressing viewpoints,” board member Eric Hansen said. “However, when those viewpoints are brought up and we try to have open dialogue and open discussion… we are literally attacked not only personally, but place of employment, jobs threatened. It’s become almost a harassment point that we cannot have open discussion.”

Hansen continued, “But through the events of this week we’ve seen on a national stage how that plays out because you disagree with someone’s viewpoints, does not mean you have the right to hate them and attack them. We’ve seen a man killed this week for that.”

IN OTHER BUSINESS

~ Associate Superintendent for Business and Operations Mary Lyon and Human Resources Director Michele Vilas discussed the finance and human resources annual update. Concerns about the House’s proposed state school aid budget were discussed. If a budget is passed reflecting the House’s budget, which eliminates categoricals for funding of programs like Career and Technical Education and transportation, APS would not receive enough money to cover costs, despite the increase in per pupil funding. Superintendent Dave Rabbideau recently wrote a letter addressing those concerns, along with other Northeast Michigan superintendents.

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