Wake cuts capacity at school board meetings. COVID safety change or stifling dissent?
New Wake County school board chairwoman Lindsay Mahaffey is citing the community surge in COVID-19 cases for limiting how many people can attend Tuesday’s school board meeting.
The capacity in the school board meeting room is being cut in half to 30 people — meaning it will mostly be board members, district staff and members of the media in the room. Only a handful of seats will be available for the public, so people have to register online by 5 p.m. Monday with a lottery being used to fill the seats.
“It’s simply looking at community spread,” Mahaffey said in an interview Monday. “I did speak to some staff members and the vice chair, but ultimately it was my decision to do that.”
Mahaffey said she was comfortable with making the change because people can still watch the meetings online at www.youtube.com/user/WakeCountySchools/videos or listen by phone. She also said the change in room capacity won’t further reduce the number of spots available for public speakers.
The board used to allow an unlimited number of speakers during public comment but reduced it to 20 slots during the pandemic. A lottery is used if more than 20 people sign up to speak.
Wake will still allow 20 speakers on Tuesday, but the capacity reduction means most speakers will need to wait outside the board room until it’s time for them to enter. They’ll have to leave the room after speaking.
Change questioned
School board member Karen Carter distanced herself from the change.
“Please note, I was not consulted prior to the decision being made,” Carter said in an online post Friday when the change was announced by the district.
“I have voiced my concerns to Board Chair Mahaffey about so few members of the public being allowed in the Boardroom and not being informed that this was being considered until after the decision was made and communicated by Tim Simmons, Chief of Communications.”
The capacity reduction has been denounced by some critics of the school board. Speakers have regularly been attending board meetings to oppose requiring face masks and to accuse Wake of promoting what they call Critical Race Theory.
Among the items on Tuesday’s school board meeting agenda is a vote to continue the face mask mandate for another month.
“@WCPSS quietly dropping capacity for public to attend board meetings,” Rachael Ayscue, a Wake parent who served on Carter’s election campaign committee in 2020, tweeted Friday. “Trying to keep parents out. They don’t want to face the ppl who voted them in cause they know we’re about to vote them out. What say you @Lindsay4Wake?!?”
Temporary reduction in capacity?
Wake had cut board room capacity to 25 people when North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper instituted limits at indoor gatherings during the pandemic. No current state limit exists, but Mahaffey pointed to the recent surge in COVID cases for the change to Tuesday’s meeting.
The state is seeing a record number of new COVID cases from the omicron variant.
Mahaffey said she hopes to restore capacity in the board meeting room to 60 people at the Jan. 18 meeting.
“That was the decision for this board meeting only and is independent of any other meetings,” Mahaffey said. “As long as our kids are in school, we’re meeting in person.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 2:11 PM.
