Briefs: school board

By Kendra Walker

Fund 26 committee opening 

The Gunnison Watershed School District school board appointed Brian Pugh to the Fund 26 Committee. The district is still looking to fill another vacancy for the at-large position on the committee. 

Fund 26 is a mill levy override that allows the school district to assess a mill rate against property values to raise up to $2.5 million in additional funding for K-12 programming. The Fund 26 Committee is made up of community members who ensure revenue is spent in accordance with the mill levy override ballot language. The committee meets four times a year and makes funding recommendations to the school board. 

Updating public comment time limit?

The school board is considering updating its meeting agenda structure and public participation policies. The board is interested in updating its public comment procedure from 3 minutes per person to 5 minutes per person. 

“My own personal feeling has been that 3 minutes is not enough. I would love to see where we allow 5 minutes normally, unless we have a room full of people who want to comment,” said board president Tyler Martineau. 

The board referenced contentious and emotional topics from the past, including the district’s COVID mask policy that drew in large crowds for public comment which took hours to get through. The rest of the board agreed they would like to allow 5 minutes per person as the standard, and then to use discretion to set a time limit for public comment and for individual speakers based on the number of people wishing to speak at any given meeting. 

The board will review a first reading of the updated policy in February.