1400P: Meeting Conduct, Order of Business and Quorum

The district must advertise all meetings, including study sessions and retreats, as meetings that are open to the public. If the Board wishes to devote all or most of a special meeting to an issue(s) to be discussed in executive session (Policy 1410), the special meeting should be called to order and recessed to an executive session. The purpose of the executive session should be announced at the meeting and recorded in the minutes (e.g., real estate matters, litigation).

All regular meetings must be held within the district boundaries. Special meetings may be held outside the district with proper notice of the time and location.

Meeting Notices

All public notices of Board meetings should inform persons with disabilities that they may contact the Superintendent’s office, so that the district can arrange for them to participate in Board meetings. A regular meeting does not require a public notice if held at the time and place provided by Board policy. If the Board does not meet at its regular location, the meeting should be treated as a special meeting with proper notice to the press stating the time, place, and purpose of the meeting.

For special meetings, the district is required to notify those newspapers and radio and television stations that have filed a request for such notification. The district must also provide written notice and a printed or electronic copy of the agenda to each school director 24 hours prior to the meeting. Notice to a director is deemed waived if the director files a written notice of waiver with the Board secretary before or at the time of the commencement of the meeting or by the director's actual attendance at the meeting.

The district must also post notice of the meeting on the district's website, as well as at the door of the main district offices, and the door at the location of the actual meeting if different from the district's offices. For Board meetings where a vote is to be taken by Board directors additional electronic notice to the community should be provided using the electronic means of communication utilized by the district for non-urgent communications.

At a special meeting, the Board may discuss items that were not on the original agenda, but the Board cannot take final action on any topics that were not identified on the original agenda. If the Board is to discuss an item in executive session in accordance with Policy 1410, the item of business must also appear on the agenda if final action is to be taken following the executive session.

No meeting notice is required when the Board is acting as a quasi-judicial body in a matter between named parties (e.g., hearing on discharge, nonrenewal or discipline of an employee, unless the employee requests a public meeting; hearing regarding suspension or expulsion of a student) or for the purpose of planning or adopting strategy or positions to be taken in collective bargaining, grievance, or mediation proceedings, or reviewing such proposals made by a bargaining unit.

Meeting Recess and Continuation

The Board may recess a regular, special, or recessed meeting to a specific future time. Notice of such a recess and continuation must be posted at or near the door of the meeting room. If the meeting is recessed to another day, the meeting notice and location will be posted on the district website. Notification to the press is not required.

Scheduling of Regular Board Meetings

In an effort to make the regular Board meeting schedule reasonably predictable and transparent, the Board will schedule meetings based on a consistent pattern, though deviations with good reason are allowed. In general, regular meetings will be scheduled on the first and third Thursdays of each month with the following exceptions:

• The Board will hold only one regular meeting in the month of February, generally on the first Thursday of the month;
• During the school year, the Board will generally not schedule regular meetings during school break weeks and will similarly make reasonable efforts to avoid scheduling meetings on holidays. Any meeting that would fall on a day during the break will be adjusted by the Board to a different week;
• The Board may adjust meeting dates for the June meetings to avoid scheduling a Board meeting on the same night as one or more of the high school graduations;
• The Board will hold only one regular meeting in July and will schedule two meetings in August to align with calendars of Board directors and executive staff. The July meeting will not be scheduled to fall on the Independence Day holiday (July 4th) and will be set to maximize Board attendance.

Public Comment During Regular Board Meetings

In order to provide greater flexibility and opportunity for community members to make public comment, the Board has structured the public comment period to provide for a maximum of 10 speakers with a maximum time of two minutes per speaker. Speakers must submit their request to make public comment (remote or in-person) in advance according to the public comment guidelines posted on the district website. 10 speakers will be randomly selected from the requests to speak (remote and in-person) using a digital randomizer. Any combination of remote and in-person speakers is possible.

Individuals who are not selected will be put on a digital randomized waitlist. Selected speakers will be informed in advance by the Board Coordinator. If there are community members who did not request to make public comment in advance and wish to make comment; and there are fewer than 10 speakers selected in advance, they will be permitted to make public comment as long as there are the same number, or fewer making the request than spaces available.

The public comment period will occur as close to 5:00 pm as possible. The specific time for which will be set forth in the published agenda for each meeting.

To ensure that comments made during public comment receive, where necessary, the same level of follow up by relevant district staff as those made by email or in other community forums, the meeting chair should coordinate with the Superintendent or their designated staff member to ensure this occurs, or the meeting chair may designate another Board Director to do so. To ensure that members of the community can easily find and understand the precise time and instructions for public comment, the relevant information will be highlighted on the district website in a manner that can be easily found and understood, reflecting the diversity and varying needs of our community To ensure that members of the community can easily find and understand the precise time and instructions for public comment, the relevant information will be highlighted on the district website in a manner that can be easily found and understood, reflecting the diversity and varying needs of our community. To ensure an understanding of the expectations around public comment, the meeting’s agenda will reference the following statement posted on the district’s website and will additionally be projected and/or during the meeting:

To ensure an understanding of the expectations around public comment, the meeting’s agenda will reference the following statement posted on the district’s website and will additionally be projected and/or during the meeting:

“The Board is grateful to receive public comment and appreciates the thoughtful input of its community. Because of the limitations of the Board’s calendar, Public Comment is generally limited to 10 minutes per meeting. If you would like to address the Board on an issue, please limit your remarks to not more than [TBD] minutes. To maximize the number of comments we can hear, please use only the time you need to make your statement. You may provide written documentation to the Board Secretary to be included as part of the official record. The Board will listen to all comments carefully but will generally not respond to comments spontaneously or without further deliberation.

The meeting chair may terminate an individual's statement when the allotted time has passed. Although this can be disappointing, please consider that this is to enable the maximum number of comments to be heard and that there are numerous additional ways to share feedback with the Board and the district.

The meeting chair may also interrupt a speaker to require the same standard of civility that the Board imposes on itself. Examples of uncivil comments include comments that:

• Are libelous or slanderous;
• Are an unwarranted invasion of privacy;
• Are obscene or indecent pursuant to the Federal Communications Act or any rule or regulation of the Federal Communications Commission;
• Violate school district policy or procedure related to harassment, intimidation, bullying, or discrimination;
• Incite an unlawful act on school premises or violate a lawful school regulation; or
• Create a material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the Board meeting.

The Board as a whole has the final decision in determining the appropriateness of all such rulings and can maintain order by removing those who are disruptive. The Board recognizes, however, the distinction between uncivil discourse, which it will not tolerate, and comments about the Board, district, and/or staff that are negative yet still civil in nature and will exercise its authority to maintain order in a content neutral manner.”

Prior to starting public comment, the Board President or meeting chair is encouraged to read 4 the sections of the statement above that he or she wishes to emphasize. To ensure members of the public understand that public comment is one of many important ways for the Board to receive public input and feedback, the district will share, through in its website and other means it considers appropriate and relevant, updated, and clear ways for the broad range of members of the Bellevue School District community to engage with and provide feedback to the Board.

Special Meetings – School Visits

The Board will make an effort to visit Middle Schools every 3 years and all other schools at least once every 4 years. In general, visits should not be scheduled for a period of more than 3 hours and should be scheduled to maximize stakeholder attendance. Visit dates and times should be set at least one week prior to the meeting, and preferably at least 3 weeks prior to give time to announce to the school community to maximize attendance.

The primary goals for these meetings are for Board members to become more familiar with each school, in its own context. The Board is encouraged to ensure there is optimal time allocated to enable key stakeholders, notably educators/staff, students, building leaders, and families, to interact with the Board and to ensure adequate time for classroom visits.

With the exception of the classroom visits, all components of the visits should occur in public areas of the school such as library or multipurpose area to accommodate other guests (as these are open public meetings).

While members of the public are welcome to attend any portion of the meeting, comments during each section of the meeting will be limited to the target stakeholder group (e.g., families, students, staff), Board members, the Superintendent and their supporting team members, the principal, and their leadership team.