Madison School District is taking steps to make it easier for members of the public to speak during School Board meetings. A new process for public participation will go into effect at the next regular board meeting on Feb. 11. Members of the panel recently shared their ideas about new rules to impl ement for people who attend meetings and want to address the board. One of the key changes will allow guests to fill out a public participation request form inside the board meeting room up until the start of each session. Previously, people who wanted to speak at a board meeting were required to register by sending an email to the panel’s president by 4:30 on the day of the meeting. The board’s meetings typically start at 6 p.m. In addition, the new process gives the board discretion to extend the overall comment period at a meeting beyond the previous maximum of 30 minutes. Superintendent Daniel Rambler, during the board’s Jan. 14 organizational meeting, asked members if they wanted to reconsider the current public participation process for their meetings. Rambler, who began his new role as district superintendent on Aug. 1, said he’s been working hard to be collaborative and transparent. “And I know that’s also been one of the missions of the board,” he said. “So I just wanted to open that idea up, to consider if there are any changes you’d like to see for (public participation at meetings).” Ben Holt, one of the board’s three newly elected members, said he definitely wanted to revise the system for allowing people to speak at meetings. Holt acknowledged that the requirement for a person to email the board’s president 1 1/2 hours before a meeting if they wanted to address the panel probably made sense during the COVID pandemic. He said a lot of parents were eager to sound off about topics such as whether face masks should have been optional or mandatory. However, in 2026, Holt said parents who come to board meetings and want to talk about something important involving their children shouldn’t be turned away, simply because they didn’t know about the mandate to register in advance by email. “There should be some sort of way you can sign in here (in the meeting room on the night of a meeting) and say what you want to talk about,” he said. Panel members also seemed receptive to allotting each speaker up to three minutes to address the board, with a total participation time of 30 minutes. But Holt recommended giving the board authority to waive the 30-minute cap, depending on circumstances. “I would like to have something in (the process) where as a board, we can make that decision kind of on the fly,” he said. “If it’s something that happened two days ago, and we need to let people talk to us, and we need to hear what they have to say, there should some sort of (stipulation) where we can allow more than (10 speakers for three minutes each).” Rambler said he would write up a revised process, taking board members’ suggestions into consideration, and create a public participation request form. He included those documents in his superintendent’s report that was contained in the agenda for the board’s regular meeting on Jan. 20. Board members offered no objections and didn’t request any changes to Rambler’s written submissions. Because the revisions were procedural in nature, and not a change to board policy, the board wasn’t required to vote on the new public participation process, Rambler explained in a Jan. 29 email. The superintendent said board meeting notices “will reflect the revised procedures so the public is aware of how and when participation may occur.” The new public participation process also is explained on the district’s website. Within that summary, people can click on a link to obtain a public participation request form, which they can print, fill out, and bring to a board meeting. ...read more read less