The Uintah School District recently revised its policy on patron input at its monthly meetings, and passed the revision on first reading.

Revisions to the policy include: writing a detailed request to speak to the board during the time of patron input; comments during patron input must be about something not listed on the agenda; and the written request must be submitted to the superintendent the Friday before the next meeting.

The policy also states patrons should not expect resolution to their questions; individuals have three minutes to speak, unless the board president decides otherwise; and several individuals who plan to address the same issue must select a spokesperson.

Initial discussion of the policy was brought up at the Dec. 13 meeting. At that meeting, two attendees felt they were slighted when the board president did not call on them when their hands were raised.

At the December meeting, a comment was accepted by board president Allen Huber from one of three attendees, but Huber denied comments from patrons Sandy Hansen and Sharon Connelly.

“That’s actually the first time I’ve ever denied patron input,” Huber said in a phone interview with the Vernal Express after the meeting. He said he made the decision to halt further comment on the agenda item about the policy after attendee Jared McKeachnie addressed the board.

McKeachnie’s comments were about the issues patrons have had in attempting to address the board in the past.

“If there was an easier process before this meeting, you wouldn’t have a problem with patron input,” McKeachnie said. “(I) read the comments in the paper... (the parents) just want to be heard and have something done.”

The board president explained why he didn’t call on the other two individuals.

“I do have an option whether or not I want to allow public input, and where that was going, that conversation I decided I didn’t want it to go any further,” Huber said of last month’s meeting.

Connelly, who was waiting until that particular agenda item before raising her hand to comment was not happy about the president’s decision.

“The only reason why I was was coming (to the meeting) was because of the changes that they wanted to make to make it difficult for patron input,” Connelly said.

Hansen was similarly upset about the denial of comments from attendees.

“It seems that when they have a meeting where public participation is being discussed, to deny two of the three people who had their hands raised to talk about the issue, seems awfully inconsistent and sad,” she said.

The board moved to table the revision of the policy at last month’s meeting because the revision that was brought to the board by superintendent Mark Dockins was listed in the wrong section of the school district policy.

At the Jan. 10 meeting, where board members passed the revision of the policy, former school board president Rodney Anderson shared his thoughts on the policy.

Anderson said when he has gone to school board president trainings in the past it was emphasized “this is a school board meeting held in public, which is very different than a public meeting.”

“I think the guidelines here, although may be hard to swallow at first, once people get used to it and know that’s what it is, I think it’s very reasonable,” Anderson said.

Huber said he has not attended school board president training.

“It’s a learning process for me, and I’m comfortable with the policy,” Huber said.

Before approving the policy revision the board made a change the time allotment for patron input saying not to exceed 15 minutes, or at the discretion of the board.

The revised policy can be found on the Uintah School District website www.uintah.net.