The town hall takes place Tuesday evening from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 1805 South 13th Street. The audience seating capacity is 150 people.
CM: Okay, Rachel, today we are going to be talking about the upcoming New Hanover County School Board town hall meeting. Just to clarify, in case people don't remember the town hall-style meetings are organized in a way that people can ask the board questions, and the board now is allowed to respond to those questions, correct?
RBK: Yes. So once a month, they have the public comment period. But during that public comment period, people only have two minutes to read a statement or say a statement to them and the board cannot respond. So the town halls were created for them to explicitly address questions that the public has, and this will be their third one. And I've been to all of them, if I go Tuesday, which I plan to.
CM: Let's back up, what were the first two like?
RBK: If you go on right now to NHCS.net, you can go and submit your question, so what they do is get all these questions, you can still do it now, it's in the news section, and they basically group them into categories. And they try to address those at the outset. And so they kind of rotate through the school board members to address collective questions that the audience members have. And then typically the last hour Josh Smith, lead communication officer, walks around and gives people the microphone, and he selects people at random when they raise their hands. And I have seen them do follow-ups. Pat Bradford, I saw her at the last town hall when she was not a school board member, she was one of those that did follow-up questions to the board.
CM: Now let's refer back to your story a little bit about the book review committee. So this committee is being put in place by the Republican candidates, in particular, to basically pull books, review these books, and they all decide together whether or not they should be in New Hanover County school libraries.
RBK: So the at-large, the seven community members, it's first come, first serve. Board Chair Pete Wildeboer, at the last meeting, said, why don't we add more professional people to this proposed committee, which was introduced by Melissa Mason. So we'll see if there's going to be a debate on that.
CM: So the main issue that popped up at the last school board meeting, during the public comment period was mostly about this book review committee. So people are not happy with it. And some people are also happy with it. So there's probably going to be a swath of concerns. And also just questions, but how the committee would work.
RBK: I mean, it'll be interesting to see who shows up and who gets the microphone more, because Josh Smith, I mean, there are regulars that go to these meetings, and you know who they are and what they stand for, but maybe some new people will come out and he won't know how to balance [those perspectives.]
CM: Now, the last piece of this town hall conversation is the fact that there is again, community input, people can actually go online and submit their questions beforehand. One of the questions is asking, how would you describe your role? Are you a parent of someone in the school system? Are you on staff? Are you a student? Are you just a community member? Are you a community partner? Then there's a section where you can ask your questions. And if your question is not addressed, they're asked for an email that they can respond to you. So it's here, it's open for people to go and submit their questions and get involved.
RBK: I mean, this is a big step by the school board, and they're continuing this commitment to address the public in general because they really didn't before. And they could see the tension. And it's just interesting to see if that tension will drop. Sometimes when people have more of a conversation with someone they change when they know that they're talking directly with the person, and they're going to have somewhat of a back-and-forth. In the typical public comment period, it’s like here's my statement, I'm going to give it to you and that's going to be the end of it. So I mean, I'll be there. I will be watching. I will be reporting on what happens.
CM: Well, Rachel, we're looking forward to your piece on that meeting. And thank you for being in the studio with me this week.
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Chief Communications Officer Josh Smith additionally told HQR, “The format will largely remain the same, with one exception, board members will first be addressing two questions each that were submitted online prior to the event (and will have 3 min per response). We'll then move to the audience Q&A segment.”
Resources
- Submit your question
- Four Republicans on NHC school board lay groundwork for controversial book review committee
- Proposed NHCS budget eliminates position, won’t include request for increased county funding
- First Town Hall –NHC school board handles questions with an even keel during first town hall
- Second Town Hall –NHC school board hosts fall town hall
