The Glen Cove Board of Education reviewed its public hearing regulations at its Wednesday, Aug. 20, meeting, which was criticized by a resident for not being open to everyone regardless of residency.
Vice President Anne Markoulis said public comment is limited to Glen Cove residents, and that each speaker is granted three minutes and prohibited from naming individuals. She said concerns regarding specific students, staff or community members must be directed towards building or central administration.
“All comments must be delivered in a respectful manner, as we model respect for our students,” she said.
Glen Cove resident Janet Blatt expressed concerns about the regulations, and said that she called lawyers at the state’s Committee for Open Meeting Regulations who said that everyone should be allowed to speak, no matter where they live.
“That committee — those lawyers — are the word. If you were sued, that would come into play,” Blatt said.
While public comment is not required to be held at school board meetings, the state’s Committee on Open Government has said that it can not discriminate between residents and nonresidents.
Blatt said that limiting comment to Glen Cove residents makes the board “outside of the law.” She said that many speakers outside of the area may have “good reason” to speak at the board meetings and could potentially sue the board if denied the right to speak.
“You may well be sued because that’s in your policy,” Blatt said.
She noted that the state committee does not have penalties for noncompliant board regulations, but that should not allow the board to limit public comment.
“It’s also true that you can do whatever you please, because there are no penalties… That doesn’t mean that you should not follow the law, because you can get away with not following the law,” Blatt said. “You should follow the law.”
The board did not respond to Blatt’s comments.
Markoulis said public comment will not be used as a “Q&A,” and that speakers’ questions will be answered at the following board meeting. She said this is because questions may require research and consideration before being answered.
“Please do not expect an immediate response during the meeting,” she said.
If questions require an immediate answer, she said the board will email the speaker 24 to 48 hours after the meeting.
In other news, Superintendent Alexa Doeschner noted that the board of education meetings would be listed differently on the 2025-2026 school year’s calendar, and that the start time of the meetings will change.
She said the board will now convene in executive session, which the public cannot attend due the the board’s discussion of “sensitive topics,” at 6 p.m. if necessary, and that the public portion of the meeting will then start at 7 p.m.
During the previous school year, public meetings were held at 7:30 p.m.
“The reason why I’m sharing this with you now is [because] we will have a change in the way that our board meetings are shown on the calendar, and I wanted to be very clear with the community,” she said.
The printed and digital calendars will now reflect executive session, if anticipated, she said.
