Palo Alto Unified cuts off remote commenting, prompting pushback

What are they thinking suppressing citizen involvement?
Maybe it's time to boot them out and elect folks who are more interested in hearing from us.

I'm surprised that the paper allowed the three letter abbreviation for a vulgar and offensive expletive to be used in the Comment section. That abbrevion has has been bleeped out on television and radio shows locally and nationally. It seems to me that having some standards of civility in the paper doesn't harm the free speech opportunities of anonymous participants. Just my opinion.

Is this really a surprise? The district always talks about open communication, equal access and their favorite one, "transparency", but they'd prefer to not have to deal with parents or the public. They make sure to speak loudly about reaching out to the underrepresented groups in the district, yet they vote to limit the access of those same people.

Collins throws them some crumbs and says they can just email us and maybe we'll read it. Some parents and students can't spend an hour plus driving to the district office and waiting for their name to be called.

What is the harm in allowing remote comments? How does that negatively impact the meeting.

Jennifer DiBrienza gives a weak excuse that it's the only Covid influenced policy remaining. What's her point? Many companies have made long lasting changes, mostly because it makes things better for all.

PAUSD should just come out and admit they're goal is not to get feedback and criticism.

In the past I have been at PAUSD board meetings long after my kids' bedtimes. Probably long after a babysitter's bedtime.

Not everyone can stay at a meeting until "they" decide it is time for public comment.

The video conference approach to meetings was one of the very few good things to come out of our schools' Covid response.

Not only should remote commenting be permitted, but remote attendance for all (presenters, officials, etc) should be allowed and indeed encouraged. Same goes for City Council.

Hmmm. So the three person committee made this decision. I wonder how this vote went down. Do we think Don was fighting tooth and nail for more transparency? Jennifer’s quote seems evasive. Maybe it was unanimous? We all know that everything this board does is by unanimous vote. Democracy in action. This is your tax dollars, my friends. You might want to “write to the Board” as Todd suggests. I’m sure they’ll get right on it.

Very disappointed. In this time and day there is no excuse and it only shows their obvious intent to shut the community up. Time to get these three out.

What is the excuse for this?

PAUSD wants the residents to support the district. We can have bake sales, donations, and so on, but they don't want to hear our views.

You would think that Don Austin would be chomping at the bit to let the media know that he is #1 at transparency by encouraging every single possible way for people to take part in the democratic process of running our schools. Surely there is room for this. Unless it's just too bothersome to hear from the hoi poloi when there are so many critical things to take care of, like staying on top of like a curated Twitter feed that, curiously enough, also limits comments from the public....

Austin can't handle criticism. He's an adolescent in a large grown body. Not sure how anyone is surprised. People from his old district in Palos Verdes told us this is how he operates. He puts on a smiley face in front of the cameras, but has little respect for the views of teachers, parents, community members.