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Providing Testimony

The Lake Oswego School Board encourages your attendance at its meetings and welcomes your participation in the proceedings.

School Board Meeting Guidelines for Conduct and Testimony 

The Lake Oswego Schools Board of Education highly values public input in making important decisions that affect Lake Oswego’s children and community. To ensure the public has an opportunity to offer comment during School Board meetings and to ensure that the Board can conduct the important business of the District, speakers must observe certain basic rules of conduct. The following guidelines apply to all public comment:

  • All members of the public attending School Board meetings must treat each other and the Board with respect.
  • Individuals are not permitted to engage in conduct that interferes with the ability of other individuals to observe the Board meetings, interferes with the ability of other members of the public to offer comment to the Board, or interferes with the ability of the Board to conduct its business.
  • Members of the public may offer objective criticism of school operations and programs, but the Board will not hear complaints concerning specific school personnel or other authorized individuals. Complaints of this nature shall be addressed through public complaints Policy KL-AR.
Submitting Testimony 

For members of the public who wish to provide in-person testimony:

  • Submit an email to the Board Executive Assistant by 12:00 noon on the day of the meeting.
  • IMPORTANT: Please type “In-Person Testimony” in the subject line.
  • To ensure you are provided an opportunity to provide in-person testimony, you must include your name, address, phone number, email address, and your affiliation with the district i.e. parent, student, community member.
  • Please include the topic of your testimony.
  • ­In-person testimony will be prioritized in the following order: LOSD students, parents of current LOSD students, LOSD community members, and others if time permits.
  • Each speaker will be sent an invitation to provide in-person testimony and will be provided an approximate time for providing such testimony.
  • Speakers are asked to arrive 10 minutes prior to their scheduled time to provide testimony to help ensure the meeting runs on time.
  • ­The School Board will limit public comments to approximately 30 minutes in total. To allow sufficient time for multiple speakers, comments from any one individual or group will be limited to three (3) minutes if there are less than ten (10) speakers and two (2) minutes if there are more than ten (10) speakers. Speakers will be prompted when 30 seconds remains for their comments and will be advised when they have reached the time limit.
  • In the event that we have more requests for in-person testimony than time allotted for public comments, some requests may not be granted.
  • A group of patrons with a common purpose should designate a spokesperson to speak on behalf of the group.
  • Individuals/group representatives requesting to provide testimony in-person are encouraged to submit written testimony in the event the School Board is unable to grant your request for in-person testimony.

For members of the public who wish to submit written testimony: 

  • Submit an email to the Board by 12:00 noon on the day of the meeting.
  • IMPORTANT: Please type “Written Testimony” in the subject line. Please note: emails that do not specifically state “written testimony” will not be included in Board testimony for the specified Board meeting.
  • Include your full name in the body of the email.
  • Names of patrons providing input will be read during the meeting and their written testimony will be posted online under “Comments from Patrons”.
  • Testimony received after the 12:00 noon deadline will be posted online at the conclusion of the meeting in accordance with the aforementioned procedures, but names of patrons will not be read during the meeting.