Board of Education

Policy 1310: Public Commentary and Feedback - Adopted 4/2/205

Public Commentary

Public commentary, typically scheduled near the beginning of all regular meetings of the board, shall be limited to an accumulated time of 45 minutes. At all other meetings of the board, excluding closed sessions, public commentary will be limited to 30 minutes. This limit may be extended at the discretion of the President. 

Persons who wish to address the board, and have officially signed up for public commentary, shall be allowed to do so. 

In-Person Meetings: Speakers must be present during the public commentary period for all meetings held in person; no write-in comments will be accepted for in-person meetings.

The Ann Arbor Board of Education will provide necessary and reasonable aids and services to individuals with disabilities by contacting the Ann Arbor Board of Education at boardofed@a2schools.org or 734-994-2232.

Electronic Meetings: Comments for sub-quorum meetings (i.e. committee meetings) held solely electronically must be submitted in writing and will be read aloud by AAPS staff within the timeframe allowed. Anonymous comments are not allowed.

The time limit for public commentary (45 or 30 minutes) will be evenly distributed among the number of speakers, and each speaker will be assigned an equal share of time in which to address the board. The maximum time for individual speakers will not exceed four (4) minutes. Exceptions to this time limit may be made at the discretion of the President, or through board action. 

Those who wish to address the board during public commentary time must sign up at least 4 hours in advance of the meeting (i.e. by 3pm for a 7pm meeting) through the online through the this link.

Speakers will be placed on the public commentary list on a first-come, first-served basis and announced in that order. The list of speakers will be made public following public commentary time. 

Speakers may not cede their time to others, and failure to speak will not increase the time allowed to other speakers. No speaker will be allowed to address the board more than once during the same meeting. 

Each speaker should announce their name, community of residence, and whether they represent any organization or agency. 

Speakers should take into account the rules of common courtesy and refrain from making personal attacks against employees, volunteers, students, parents, community members, or members of the board. If the comments constitute a complaint against an employee, the employee has the right to request a closed meeting. Speakers are encouraged to present complaints about a specific employee, board member, or student through proper channels established under board policy before requesting board consideration. At no time should a speaker reference a specific individual by name when speaking on an issue of concern involving personnel or students. 

Members of the board and district employees will not answer questions during public commentary. However, previously stated board policies or administrative rules and regulations and corrections or clarifications to matters of fact may, be explained. A board member may, with the President's permission, ask a question of a speaker; otherwise, no dialogue is expected. 

Feedback

The district will continue to solicit and provide an avenue to collect regular electronic feedback from the community. Written feedback can be submitted by electronic form, which will be available on the district website.  This feedback will be collected on an on-going basis.  The feedback will be collected until 4 hours prior to the meeting, at which point the feedback will be extracted and distributed to the board prior to each regular board meeting.  Any feedback provided after 4 hours prior to the start of the regular board meeting will begin the collection process for the following regular meeting.  The results of the feedback collected will be published in the Diligent Community website under a separate section on the agenda for public review. 

• The public is welcome to attend all open meetings of the board either in person, or by viewing live through Zoom (if available) or on the CTN Government Channel. 
• Regular Meetings, Study Sessions and Retreats are typically held at the Earhart Administration Building, 3700 Earhart Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105.  Committee meetings (membership of three or less trustees) are held via Zoom.  
• Video recordings of Regular Meetings and Study Sessions are available through CTN.

Board of Education meetings can be viewed live through:

• Zoom (see Board Calendar for the link)
• CTN Government Channel (If there are technical difficulties on CTN's stream during a meeting, please use the Zoom link provided on the Board Calendar page.)

Board-adopted policies and administrative regulations can be found on BoardDocs.  

Communicate with the Board at any time by email:

boardofed@a2schools.org

Or by U.S. Mail: 

School Board Elections

School Board elections are held on the November election day of even years. School Board terms are January 1 through December 31 for up to 4-year terms.

Four seats (4-year terms) will be on the November 3, 2026 ballot.  Newly-elected (or re-elected) trustees will take office January 1, 2027.

Current board member terms:

Susan Baskett - 4-year term (ending Dec 31, 2026)

Torchio Feaster - 2 year term (ending Dec 31, 2026)

Rima Mohammad - 4-year term (ending Dec 31, 2026)

Susan Schmidt - 4-year term (ending Dec 31, 2026)

Don Wilkerson - 4-year term (ending Dec 31, 2028)

Leslie Wilkins - 4-year term (ending Dec 31, 2028)

Glynda Wilks - 4-year term (ending Dec 31, 2028)

Are you interested in running for the School Board?

For information about running for the school board, please go to the Washtenaw County Elections candidate information website.

The AAPS typically holds an information session for prospective board candidates in late June of the election year.  If you would like to be contacted when the session is scheduled, please complete the form here.