Dearborn School Board Meeting Resumes Thursday At Stout Middle School

DEARBORN, MI — After a raucous crowd disrupted a Monday night Dearborn school board meeting, district officials announced Wednesday the meeting will reconvene Thursday evening at Stout Middle School.

The meeting will resume at 7 p.m. in the school's auditorium, which will be limited to 600 people, school officials said. (The district initially planned to reconvene the meeting at Fordson High School, but had to relocate due to scheduling conflicts.)

Anyone who submits a blue card to speak by 7:10 p.m. Thursday evening (or if they submitted a blue card at Monday’s meeting) will be allowed to speak at the reconvened meeting. Speakers will be limited to three minutes each and no one is allowed to assign or share their time with another person, school officials said.

Officials expect the open public comment portion of the meeting to last more than three hours. Dearborn Police will be on hand to help with crowd control, school officials said.

Posters and signs will be allowed, but cannot be larger than 3 feet by 3 feet or mounted on any type of stick or pole. Any large oversized signs will not be permitted due to safety concerns and obstructing the view of the meeting for others who are attending, school officials said.

School officials reminded residents the Board of Education meeting is not a town hall or open forum. Rather, the meeting is to allow the Board to conduct the business of the district.

Although matters related to the district's new book review process are not on the agenda, officials expect a majority of the public comments to be related to that topic. The open public comment portion of the meeting will take place at the end, after officials vote on other items on the agenda.

Before Monday's meeting was disrupted, officials reiterated the district's new criteria for how books in school libraries will be evaluated and how parents can address concerns they have about specific titles.

The new approach comes after parents challenged six book titles found in the district's library. The action prompted protests on both sides of the debate. School officials pledged to use the new criteria to review the titles.

"We will not promise to remove every book because we know different parents have different opinions about some materials," Superintendent Glenn Maleyko said. "But we do promise to take the time to reevaluate items parents may be concerned about if they reach out to the media specialist."