On average, parents, teachers, students, tax payers, and community members are forced to wait between 4 and 6 hours to bring up their non-agenda item concerns at Plano ISD School Board Meetings.
For those unaware, Plano ISD breaks its public comments into two sections: one generally towards the beginning of the meeting to address concerns related to items that are on the agenda for that meeting, and the other typically at the end of the meeting to address concerns often related to education and safety that are not on the agenda for that meeting (non-agenda items). Public comments are historically limited to 3 minutes unless there are more than 10 public comments being made, in which case speakers are given less time, usually 1 minute.
At the February 7, 2023 Plano ISD School Board Meeting that started at 6:00 pm, it wasn’t until approximately 10:35 pm that public comments on non-agenda items began. At that point, one of the three speakers had already left. When the first speaker was called, she attempted to address this concern with the Board of Trustees.
It wasn’t until after 11:00 pm that non-agenda item public comments began at the May 2, 2023 Plano ISD School Board Meeting that started at 6:00 pm. Again, the Board was confronted about another very long wait to speak.
After waiting nearly 5 hours, the one non-agenda item speaker at the May 16, 2023 Plano ISD School Board Meeting began his public comment by quipping about how he may fall asleep.
For the next several months, meetings have routinely ended around 11 pm.
Most recently, at the March 19, 2024 Plano ISD School Board Meeting, the wait was over 6 hours. It was well after midnight when the one speaker of the three who had managed to stay until the end finally got the three minutes maximum that the Board will hear speakers. During his comment, he was rudely interrupted and scolded by Board President Nancy Humphrey for veering off his original topic when he briefly spoke on behalf of a parent who abandoned the wait earlier, calling the Board out for being unfair.
Other neighboring school districts place all public comments towards the beginning of the meeting, while Plano ISD places the non-agenda comments at the end, appearing to discourage stakeholders from voicing their non-agenda concerns.
Is this an attempt by Plano ISD to avoid public scrutiny, accountability and responsibility and one of the many reasons why families are leaving the district?
Educate Plano 