Screenshot of Janice Kelley criticizing the district’s book removal policy during public comments at the infamous September 2023 board meeting.

By Rebecca Gaunt

The Cobb County Board of Education will consider a revision to board policy Thursday that appears to cut the public comment portion of the meeting from the broadcast.

The revised section pertaining to the meeting’s broadcast has a strike through of the words “broadcast live” and now says, “Speakers should be aware that their commentary may be filmed, photographed or recorded by the District or others.” 

“Others” is substituted where the policy previously clarified that speakers might be also recorded by “non-District media sources.”

The section pertaining to rebroadcasting or placement on the district website is also struck through.

Under the portion of the policy pertaining to special-called and emergency meetings, it states that the meetings will be broadcast live if practical, but the word “including” has been struck through and replaced with “excluding public comments.”

Additionally, the policy that allows a speaker who violates conduct rules to be banned from the boardroom for up to 60 days, has been reworded to the vague “a specific period of time as allowed by law.” The section that describes banned comment content has been updated to use the word “tortious,” rather than “untrue” and “unsubstantiated claims” about identified employees.

Tovah Ringland is a regular speaker at the monthly board meetings. She speaks on matters of special education and her concerns about the district’s special education policies, driven by her son’s experiences in the district.

“Without the ability for administrators to hear what I’m saying, it’s pointless to even go,” she said. 

She said principals and other school administrators have reached out to her about her comments in the past, but since they aren’t physically present at the meetings, they will no longer hear her feedback.

“They threw us out into horror weather, made us walk through security, and now this,” she said.

Ringland is referring to the district policy change that was instituted in October 2023 requiring people in line to sign up for public comment to stand outside. That policy has stood firm ever since, regardless of weather conditions.

It was instituted after the September 2023 meeting which devolved into chaos when the district abruptly moved the sign up from the lobby to an area outside the main doors. People who had been waiting for hours scuffled with people who attempted to join the line in the new location. District officials initially placed the blame on people in the lobby, saying they had created a disturbance. 

An open records request of staff Microsoft Teams messages showed that the move was an orchestrated event led by John Floresta, the district’s chief accountability officer, and Julian Coca, head of marketing, to knock “bad guys” who were there to criticize the district and superintendent out of the line.

The district is currently facing a lawsuit from two of the parents involved in the incident.

The staff members who were involved in the Teams exchange have been named during public comments referencing the incident on multiple occasions, which has inconsistently resulted in reprimands from the board chair, though speakers have been allowed to finish. 

Students and parents have spoken about their experiences with antisemitism, Islamaphobia, and bullying. Book removals have also been a consistent topic. In April, three members of the bus fleet maintenance crew spoke about safety concerns they said were being ignored by their superiors, with support from nearly the entire department sitting in the audience.

Scathing rebukes of district policies, financial decisions, and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale have become a regular occurrence during the public comment period, which has already undergone multiple policy changes, including limiting the number of speakers and updates to sign-up procedures.

In November, Ragsdale told critics to “take a break” and accused them of having political agendas.

Post 2 board member Becky Sayler addressed the proposed changes on her Facebook page Tuesday, writing, “The proposed changes seem to mean that public comment will no longer be broadcast.  Unless you are in-person during the board meeting, you will not be able to hear what your fellow stakeholders have to say. In addition, while the length of time a person can be banned from a meeting is lengthened to a specific time, that length of time is not named. I’ll be asking about these changes. They do not have my support at this time.”

Sayler also plans to request a policy change of her own. In 2020, the Republican majority changed the rule for getting an issue on the agenda to require approval from three board members to four. The Democratic minority has had difficulty in the years since getting items added for discussion. Sayler plans to ask the board to change the rule back to three.

The district declined to comment per its policy of not participating in the Courier’s stories. The other board members have not yet responded to requests for comment.