Fort Worth school board moves meetings to new location, ends livestreams
The Fort Worth school board is moving the location of its meetings, enforcing guidelines for attendees and no longer providing a livestream of meetings starting Tuesday.
The meetings will be at the Teaching and Learning Center, 1050 Bridgewood Drive, in east Fort Worth.
The center has more than four times the space of the previous meeting location at the Professional Development Center, according to a district press release.
“The TLC provides sufficient space to effectively manage the meetings and accommodate the number of individuals wishing to address the board,” the release said.
A livestream of the meeting will no longer be available. Previously, meetings could be watched live on the Fort Worth school district’s YouTube channel.
This is because of the move to the new location, said district spokesperson Claudia Garibay. A livestream feature could become available in the future.
A video recording of each meeting will be posted the following day on Spectrum Channel 192, AT&T U-verse 99 and the district’s YouTube channel.
The board is also enforcing 12 guidelines for attendees, although the majority of these rules were previously in place. These include requiring participants to specify the agenda items on which they’re commenting, prohibiting vulgar language and prohibiting participants from giving up their time to another speaker, including recordings of other speakers.
The new guidelines include separating public comment of agenda items and public comment of general topics and limiting signs to 22 by 28 inches.
Here’s the complete list of the 12 guidelines:
- Participants must sign up for public comment by calling 817-814-1920 by 4:00 p.m. the day of the meeting or at the meeting until 5:20 p.m.. Written statements can be sent to amanda.coleman@fwisd.org by noon the day of the meeting. Written statements will be shared with the board but will not be read aloud during the board meeting.
- Board members may not engage in an exchange about a subject that has not been posted. Trustees may reply with a statement of specific factual information, recite an existing policy in response to the inquiry or direct the person to visit with staff about the issue.
- Participants must specify the agenda item or topic of their comment.
- Participants addressing specific agenda items will speak during the public comment portion of the meeting dedicated to agenda item discussion.
- Participants who are addressing the board with comments of a general nature will speak during the appropriate public comment portion.
- Speakers have three minutes unless the speaker is using a translator. If the number of speakers exceeds 20 people, each speaker will have one minute.
- Participants who require a translator are permitted to have double the allotted time.
- Participants may not give up their time to another speaker.
- Attendees are allowed to bring signs during the meeting, but they’re limited to a standard poster board size no larger than 22 by 28 inches.
- Vulgar language and profanity are not tolerated.
- Disruptions of the meeting by members of the audience are not tolerated. After at least one warning from the presiding officer, the individual may be removed from the meeting by a law enforcement official.
- Individuals are asked to comply with the appropriate grievance policy to have a complaint heard.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 5:44 PM.
