The Douglas County school board is looking to change their rules for public comment during meetings.

At the board’s retreat on July 31, the board discussed limiting public commenters to a single three-minute comment. Currently, people can speak on behalf of others and receive their comment time. 

School Board President Mike Peterson said he felt public commenters took advantage of the ability to stack comments to get more time than others. 

“What I perceived is there was a lot of abuse this year of people reading other people’s comments," Peterson said. "Most of those commenters, in my opinion, were not saying ‘here’s my comment, break, I’m now reading for my husband, child or whoever,’ where the comments are substantially different. So they’re stringing together comments and I think it got to be abusive.”

Other board members agreed that comment stringing should be restricted, but the board was split about whether to continue allowing comments on behalf of others and anonymous comments.

Peterson and board member Christy Williams said they would support getting rid of anonymous comments and speaking for others. 

“When you do anonymous, you risk people just saying that they’re reading on behalf of someone,” Williams said. 

However, most board members didn’t think it would be necessary if comments were restricted to three minutes per person per meeting. Board members Susan Meek and David Ray advocated to keep anonymous comments because community members and staff still have trust issues with the district.

“I had a teacher reach out to me who said she doesn’t feel comfortable sharing her name during public comment, so it’s those people that I’m concerned about,” Ray said. 

The board will consider changing public comment rules and vote at the Aug. 22 meeting.