Community members will no longer be able call in to leave public comments for the Round Rock ISD board starting this December, after trustees approved some changes to its operating procedures Nov. 2.

In a nutshell

In addition to other policies regarding attorney-client privilege and requests for agenda items, RRISD board members considered updates to the public comment policy that allows community members to address the board during public meetings.

In addition to eliminating all forms of virtual public comment, which have been given via voicemail for nearly a year, the public comment policy updates include:

• Having commenters speak before or during the consideration of the agenda item for which their comments are related
• Requiring community members to describe the topic they will be commenting on when signing up to speak
• Requiring community members to identify which agenda item their comments are related to
• Allowing the board president to notify the speaker and administration that the comment will be deferred as a grievance if it is determined the comment may better be resolved through the district's grievance process

The changes will go into effect for the district's December meeting, and additional methods of communicating with district officials are to be provided to the community, Board President Amber Landrum said.

The backstory

In November 2022, the board of trustees chose to offer virtual public comment to the RRISD community as a replacement for comments given via Zoom. The new policy allows community members to address trustees by dialing 512-488-0785, with the first two minutes of the message played for the board.