PLANO ISD NEWS

Thank you for contacting PIano ISD about the right to have public comment at school board meetings!

Because of your wonderful efforts, the trustees have put the issue of public comment on the November 2 school board agenda!!! 

Now, we need to get them to VOTE to allow public comment at the meeting! 

Please come to the meeting where this will be decided!! 

Tuesday, November 2nd, 7 pm

PISD Administration Building, 2700 W. 15th Street, Plano, 75075

Located on 15th Street between Independence and Custer. 

Your attendance will encourage them to vote for public comment! 

Two of the trustees are up for election soon and if they see you there, they will know they must support it if they intend to win re-election!  Which trustees are up for election?  Board President Skip Jenkins and Board Vice President Brad Shanklin.  So far, both have opposed public comment.

If you would like to speak at the meeting - GREAT!!  If you would rather not speak, that is ok also, but we really need your support in the audience!!  

Plano ISD is the only school district in Texas that has no means for allowing the public to bring information, ideas or comments to the whole board in a public forum.  This is outrageous!!  The trustees are elected to represent the public, yet have decided that this is not how the public should communicate with them.  They prefer:

-Send an email, that they will answer with a generic "thanks for your input" but not addressing the idea or change you seek.

-Leave a voicemail at a district phone number, so they can listen (or not).

-Ask for a small group meeting of one or two trustees, where you are told that you are the only one that has this concern!

-Attend a PTA meeting.  Trustees are accountable to the whole community and not even all parents of students are in PTA.  This forum allows you to address only one or two trustees.

-Attend a Town Hall meeting.  The most recent meeting was the first in 18 months and the public was given about 1 week's notice of the meeting.  This forum allows you to address two trustees in small groups, but not all the trustees at one time. 

It is reasonable for the trustees to be accountable to the public by instituting public comment of non-agenda items in this manner:

-Provide 30 minutes at the start or end of the business meeting for non-agenda items.

-Allow speakers up to 3 minutes each.

-Restrict speakers to a maximum of once every other month.