A reorganized Kingfisher Board of Education took steps to address its policy on public participation, welcomed some new and some familiar faces to the staff and said goodbye to some longtime employees.

All that took place in 45 minutes Monday at the board’s March regular meeting.

The reorganization was the first thing that took place as Mike Copeland was nominated for president, Dana Golbek the vice president and Carly Franks clerk.

The moves were approved by that trio as well as the other two board members, Jim Perdue and Charles Walker.

Among the items they addressed were changes to multiple board policies.

Some were mandated by state law and others were discretionary.

The policy regarding public participation at meetings was at the top of the list of discretionary policies.

And board members opted to not move on the new policy because, not so ironically, it wants public input on proposed changes.

Board policy adopted October 2005 mandated citizens receive from the superintendent and fill out a form at least five days prior to the board meeting in order to be placed on the agenda.

The policy presented Monday states “requests must be submitted at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting.”

Those wanting to speak must sign a form stating they have read the instructions regarding public comment and, according to the policy, “the president may interrupt and terminate any presentations not deemed to be in accordance with the guidelines.”

It also states any issues regarding personnel or student suspensions can’t be addressed during public participation “as the appropriate due process must be afforded employees and students.”

The policy directs patrons to follow the district’s chain of command for most issues prior to addressing the board.

Board members may have some dialogue with speakers if their subject matter is regarding an agenda item at that specific meeting, but cannot if it’s not an agenda item, according to the proposed policy.

The policy also limits a person’s time to three minutes and the entire public comment portion to 20 minutes.

Persons will be allowed to speak in the order in which they signed up. If the 20 minutes expire before a person who signed up is allowed to speak, they’ll have to repeat the process to speak at the next meeting.

“I don’t want to jump right into and approve it, but I do think this is a great starting point,” Copeland said. “We want to get this out there and let people read it and offer their feedback.”

Copeland said board policies are always in need of change.

“Everything evolves,” he said. “What was good policy five, 10 or 20 years ago may not be what we need right now. We have to be going forward; we have to be proactive.”

Board members opted to table approving the new policy, but did approve policies on bids and quotations, limited English proficiency instruction, alternative education, student retention, reading sufficiency testing, attendance policy and reporting suspected child abuse.

The board also approved annual contracts with ADPC for financial accounting software ($5,820); Britton, Kuykendall & Miller for preparation of estimate of needs and auditing services (gross fee not to exceed $12,950); Support Employee Evaluation System, Inc., for teacher evaluation system ($2,500); and Municipal Accounting Systems for student information systems ($15,940).

Out-of-state trips for FFA students were given the approval. Groups will be traveling to Texas Tech University on March 28 and West Texas A&M University April 3-4.