Gwinnett School Board May Limit Comments At Future Meetings

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — Fewer people will be able to speak at future Gwinnett County school board meetings if a policy change proposed by administrators is approved.

Only 15 people would be allowed to speak during 30 minutes set aside during the school board’s monthly business meeting, under a proposal presented Thursday by Jorge Gomez, the district’s executive director of administration and policy.

Currently, an unlimited number of people can speak to the board for three to five minutes each. With COVID-19 a hot topic, that’s led to logjams in recent months: The Gwinnett Daily Post reported, for example, that 60 people signed up to speak at the Gwinnett school board’s last meeting.

“As important as public input is, it is also important that you run an effective and orderly meeting,” Gomez said as reported by the Post. You do that by limiting redundant commenters, he added.

“If there are groups for and against — there’s 50 people to paint the buildings pink and there’s 50 people to paint the buildings blue — you do have the authority to ask those groups to coalesce to one voice,” Gomez told the board.

The proposed policy change will not affect the half hour for public comments scheduled before each school board meeting.

Although district administration proposed limiting comments, under Georgia law only a school board can change the policy, which has been in place in Gwinnett County since the 1980s. The school board’s next meeting is on March 18.