Sandra Omari-Boateng
Public comments could soon go online.
The Iowa City School Board discussed the possibility of implementing a new online forum for members of the community to voice opinions on Tuesday.
Board members said community members’ opinions at meetings are appreciated, but they now want to focus on being able to get more of the community to be heard.
Thoughtexchange, the forum the board discussed adopting, is an online-based community forum platform. It offers community members an anonymous place to discuss, vote, and offer critiques on any given topic brought up on the site.
Kevin Skelcher, vice president of sales for Thoughtexchange, gave an informational presentation on the forum from a remote location to everyone in attendance at the meeting.
“The conversations are similar to meeting styles and processes where you write your idea on cards and then go around the room and discuss the ideas that you like,” Skelcher said. “We leverage technology to make that even better. Our process involves three steps: we ask people to enter open ended questions about a particular topic, and then get people to go through comments of others to create a ranking system, finally we reveal the results of the information.”
Members of the School Board debated afterwards on the idea but decided not to vote on it during the meeting.
Board member Brian Kirschling said he was in favor of being able to reach more people who don’t usually attend public meetings.
“There are significant problems with people being able to take the time off from their home life to come to community centers,” Kirschling said. “I am very supportive of some type of online system for taking the temperature.”
Board member Chris Liebig said he was opposed to the idea because Thoughtexchange could be manipulated in favor of the people making up the polls and discussion boards.
“I don’t really see this as being exactly a democratic tool. I see the possibility of being a propaganda tool,” Liebig said. “We can set the questions and the parameters and the filters in such a way that we would never get any bad news.”
In addition to discussion over the website, community members in attendance brought up concerns regarding the new bell schedule for students this year.
The new bell times for the Iowa City high schools and junior highs are from 8 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. and elementary schools are 8:45 to 3:45. Many residents who spoke at the meeting had some kind of concern about how the later times affect students and creating conflicts for the before and after school programs in the community.
