Public Participation at CMCSS Board of Education Meetings

Requests to address the School Board during the “Public Conversation or Comments” portion of the meeting agenda must be provided in writing with all required information to the Board of Education Secretary at least 48 hours prior to the date of the formal meeting at which you wish to speak. Public comment time periods will be allotted at the beginning of each formal board meeting at which a vote will be taken. There will not be public comments before a study session as there are no votes taken by the Board and there are no actionable items on these agendas. Also, there will not be public comments at a special voting/formal session to address a teacher discipline or termination. Your request will be referred to the School Board Attorney for evaluation and review. After your timely submission of the completed written request to address the School Board, and unless you are notified to the contrary, you will be placed on the “Public Conversation” portion of the agenda, subject to the following rules:

1. Time limit of any single presentation shall not exceed five (5) minutes.

2. Subject matter must be limited to issues related to education or the business of the Board, except as set forth below.

3. The Board will not allow sexually explicit language, threats, loud and disruptive comments, or excessive noise (to include jeers, shouts, and boisterous applause or demonstrations, as well as music, sound effects and other noise from electronic devices) from the floor. Disruptive persons will be asked to leave the meeting room. In accordance with Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-306, any person who acts to prevent, obstruct, or interfere with any lawful meeting of the CMCSS School Board by physical action or verbal utterance shall be warned by the Chair, Vice Chair or Board Attorney to discontinue those actions. Law enforcement may lawfully remove any person from the meeting who refuses to cease his or her acts of preventing, obstructing, or interfering with any such meeting.

4. The presiding Board officer or the Board Attorney may interrupt or terminate a presentation when its length has exceeded the five (5)-minute time limit, or when the presentation is obscene, threatening, sexually explicit, unduly repetitive, or irrelevant to the business before the School Board. Further, please be advised that young children are often present in-person at CMCSS Board meetings and/or are observing the meetings via the internet and/or audio or video recording.

5. The presiding Board officer or the Board Attorney may limit the total number of individuals recognized to speak on any side of any given issue to three (3) individuals. The board shall take all practicable steps to ensure that opposing viewpoints, if any, are represented fairly. The total length of public presentations to be made at any given School Board meeting may also be limited at the discretion of the presiding Board officer or the Board Attorney not to exceed thirty (30) minutes in the aggregate.

6. The presentation, or an outline of the presentation, and its relationship to the business of the School Board must be provided in writing along with the request form.

7. No person will present orally or discuss at an open meeting of the School Board complaints against individual employees of the School District on matters involving disciplinary action against employees or students until all administrative requirements relating to employee grievances or student disciplinary matters have been followed.

8. This process does not apply to public hearings (to include zoning hearings and budget hearings) for which a sign-up sheet will be available on location.

Please note: The Board recognizes the value of public comment on the educational issues and the importance of involving members of the public in its meetings. The Board requires that such participants be either residents of Montgomery County, employees of the School District, students, parents/guardians of a CMCSS student, or the designee of such residents. Any representative of a firm eligible to bid on materials or services solicited by the board will also be entitled to express an opinion regarding business of the school system. No unsolicited sales pitches or presentations may be made during the public comment. To permit fair and orderly expression of such comment, the Board will provide a period not to exceed thirty minutes during which visitors may make formal presentations. Public comment opportunities are available for the Board to hear from interested members of the community concerning the business of the Board. Board members and/or the Director of Schools do not provide responses or engage in direct conversation during public comment. If speakers wish to receive an answer to a specific question, inquiries should be directed to the appropriate district office. Before addressing the Board, individuals are urged to seek a solution to their concerns through the proper staff and administrative channels.

CMCSS School Board meetings, including public comments and conversation may be recorded, by audio and video and such recordings may be viewed from CMCSS websites or on the internet and may be rebroadcast or available for viewing by the public, and please be advised that members of the viewing public may often include young children. Such audio and video recordings are not the official record or minutes of the CMCSS Board meeting and CMCSS may elect not to retain or broadcast such recordings.

Please click here to download the request form or you can email your request to the Board of Education Secretary at [email protected] with the information below. Incomplete requests will not be considered.

• Full Legal Name (Required)
• Telephone (Required)
• Address (Required)
• Email Address (Required)
• Individual or Organization (if any) you represent (Only required if applicable)
• The topic of your presentation, or an outline of the presentation, and its relationship to the business of the School Board. (Required)

Approved by the CMCSS School Board on September 14, 2021; modified on June 20, 2023, November 21, 2023.