Tumwater School District board reviews protocols following audience protest

Following a recent issue regarding audience protest and proper implementation of meeting protocols, members of the Tumwater School District (TSD) Board of Directors reviewed procedures in the Board Governance Handbook.

The handbook, which was approved in 2024 under the presidency of Board member Darby Kaikkonen, contains the governance team’s work on the creation of a framework for effective governance. That involves ongoing discussions about unity of purpose, roles and norms, and agreeing on protocols for formal structures.

Issues regarding the proper implementation of rules were brought up during the March 12 work session, wherein some board members expressed concern about the way an action item was presented during a prior meeting.

At a Feb. 27 meeting, Board President Melissa Beard first read a personal statement against a resolution supporting (WIAA) amendments that limit the participation of transgender student-athletes before presenting a motion for the resolution.

The passage of the resolution led to dissent from the audience due to misrepresentation, and cut the meeting short.

Procedural rules

Kaikkonen highlighted the importance of presenting an action item for a first read or introduction, before any discussion.

TSD Board Policy 1400 for the Board of Directors states that “all board meetings will be conducted in an orderly and business-like manner using Roberts Rules of Order (Revised) as a guide, except when such rules are superseded by board bylaws or policies.”

Roberts Rules require that a motion be presented and seconded before it goes to the floor for discussion or consideration.

“More specific within Roberts rules is … following the introduction, there's questions to staff or the person that's introducing questions, that's it, there's no discussion,” Kaikkonen said.

Public comment procedures

Beard also pointed out the district’s public comment rules, which are not tightly regulated, cause people who want to talk about agenda items to be pushed further away from the sequence of speakers.

“People are only supposed to be speaking on agenda items, and it's been hard to enforce because we only have one speaker usually,” Beard said.

Beard is suggesting to “shift the order” of commenting, wherein people speaking to items related to the agenda will be the first to comment.

Other speakers would then be arranged based on the order they signed up for the other topic areas.

TSD Board Policy 1430 mandates the board shall provide a period at the beginning of the meeting during which visitors may comment on items not on the agenda, as well as express opinions on any item on the agenda.

The directors tabled the possible changes to public comment rules to check their alignment with current board policies.

Board members Casey Taylor and Kaikkonen will work on polishing the policy changes to be presented in a work session in June or at a later date.

“This board has business to do. We have policy to set. We have major decisions to make. We cannot have nuance and ambiguity about how we are operating,” Kaikkonen said.

“That's ultimately why Casey and I will take the steps that we need to take in order to align Roberts Rules and policy and operating protocols, and try to get that level of clarity.”