Public Forum and Mediator
Current State College School Board
The State College Area School District Board meets on the second and fourth Monday of every month
(except December when it’s the first and third Mondays). 1 It is governed by 9 members and each
member is elected and serves for four years.1 1 Meetings take place in the Board Room of the
Administrative offices located at 131 W Nittany Ave, State College, PA, 16801 starting at 7:30 PM. 1
All meetings, as well as the minutes for those meetings are open to the public. The date, place, and time
of the meetings are posted in the general newspaper for circulation the week of the meeting. 2 All
special meetings concerning urgent issues at hand are published at least 24 hours in advance.2 2
The public forum in State College is the Public Issues Steering Forum of State College. The public
issue meeting is held at no cost in a building within the school district. When the meeting takes place,
everyone is given the same basis of information regarding the topics that will be discussed.3 The
meeting is then broken off into smaller groups in which each group goes into separate rooms to address
as many view points as possible with a moderator in charge of moving the meeting along. A reporter is
placed in each group to record what is discussed in the separate sections. The groups finally reconvene
into a single meeting to give an insight into what the public is thinking. These meetings usually last
several hours, but no solution is decided upon. It gives the school board and the public a chance to
acknowledge their differences and also recognize their common grounds. The goal is that the school
board members will have a broader point-of-view and take more people’s perspectives into account
when they consider the issue in the future. The Public Issues Steering Forum provides deliberation at
no cost to the school, it only takes donations to print out flyers and advertise in the local newspaper to
inform the public about the public forum.
Pennsylvania state law requires that every school board meeting be open to the public. The only
exclusions from the law are personnel matters, labor negotiations, real estate negotiations, expulsion
hearings, or litigations. The school board members may hold executive sessions which are not
necessarily open to the public. 3 4 These meetings are mainly used to plan and discuss matters without
making a final decision. Once a decision is to be determined, a meeting will be opened to the public
and will be announced in advance through the media, such as a newspaper or radio.
School Board Meetings as Public Forum
On September 27, 1999, Act 903. Public Participation in Board Meetings was adopted at the board
meetings, providing time for the public to speak. The third issue of every school board meeting is Open
Discussion when the public can voice their opinions. The public is allowed to comment during the
Open Discussion before any courses of action are taken in the meeting. The public (residents or
taxpayers of the district, any district employee, or any district student) may speak for a maximum of
1
2
3
4
1
State College Area School District, Board of School Directors for the State College Area School District, 2006,
<http://www.scasd.org/2497%5F7587161156/site/default.asp> (10 November 2006).
2 State College Area School District, Notice of Board Meetings, 2006,
<http://www.scasd.org/2497%5F7587161156/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=47650> (11
November 2006).
Rachel Patterson, interview by author, State College, PA, 29 October 2006.
3
John Gill, interview by Brandon Prego, State College, Pennsylvania, 2 November, 2006.
five minutes. The speaker must first be recognized by the presiding officer at the meeting and then
must begin by announcing their name, address, and group of affiliation if applicable. Each speaker is
allowed to speak only once per topic, and must direct all comments to the presiding officer.
Open Public Forum:
An open forum is a public meeting place open for discussion, traditionally held in a public square or
town hall. Today, there are not many true open forums; forums are for the most part are limited in some
way. A good example of a true open forum is the town-hall meeting, which has no real limit to what
one can discuss, about one’s community. An example of an open forum was the town meetings for the
citizens of Marion County, (Indianapolis area). In this meeting there was a topic, but the people were
not really limited in their discussion about the community. These town hall meetings were held to
gather information about certain planning issues for the citizens of Marion County. People attending
the first meeting included neighborhood association members, City-County Councilors, Board of
Zoning Appeals members, school district representatives, township officials, representatives of
environmental organizations and individual citizens. They used questioners and had discussions
throughout the meeting. The purposes of the questioners were to get more discussion out of the group
and generate new ideas. These forums were successful, because there were probably a lot more
questions and opinions generated from the questioners; this gave people more ideas to talk about.
From these questioners and discussion the community planners could get a better idea of what they
need to do to make the community a better place. What did not work as well, was probably the time to
discuss people’s overall opinions, since people were taking a lot more time filling out the survey.16, 17
Limited Public Forum:
Most public forums today are considered limited public forums. The stereotypical “town hall” open
forum seems to be a thing of the past. A limited public forum is created when public property is
opened for a limited purpose. The limited public forum differentiates itself from other forums because
they have a specific agenda, where an open forum does not. Usually a government official or
professional will set the standards and guidelines for the forum to follow. A good example of a limited
public forum is a meeting room on a college campus reserved for discussion of the foreign politics for
two hours a week. Also in a limited public forum, restrictions on speech and agenda are allowed if they
are viewpoint-neutral and reasonable in light of the purpose of the forum. In that case the school or
organization can prohibit other topics of discussion. The 2005 and 2006 East and Southeast Fort Worth
Economic Summits are both great examples of limited public forums. These summits follow the
description of a public forum, but are limited to specific economic growth in Fort Worth, Texas. Since
this forum is specifically tailored to economic reform, we can say that this is a limited public forum.
All in all these forums although limited focused on a specific task at hand; and with community
involvement resolved a rather complicated issue. “The East and Southeast Fort Worth Economic
Development Summit, organized by the Public Forum Institute and hosted by honorary U.S.
Congressman Michael C Burgess, was held to update the vision for the economic future of the region,
and to review the set of recommendations to address a number of challenges facing local
communities.” Another statement made by Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Public Forum Institute
said, “East and Southeast Fort Worth boasts a tremendous community spirit. It was as if everyone in
the room was ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work on some innovative ideas.”18, 19
The Illinois PTA and Center on Education Policy were granted funding to hold ten community
forums around Illinois in order to encourage an extensive discussion on how to improve the
overall quality of public education. 5 They decided to structure their forums as invitation-only
and sent out invitations to individuals of “various walks of life” in an attempt to hear as many
viewpoints as possible. 4 The control provided by this method served well for them, because
their primary goal was to gain information on public opinion.
In these forums, small groups of eight to ten people sat around tables and engaged in face-toface conversations while being monitored by a table facilitator, a reporter, and a tabulator. They
discussed the issue for around three hours. There were no speeches at the meetings. The only
time the entire group was addressed was for each table to report what they found to be the
general consensus of their table.
Public Involvement
School board members are elected officials. It is the public’s responsibility to vote representatives into
office.5 6 These school board members have the power to make decisions whereas the public’s opinion
has no standing during board meetings. However, there are several ways the public can get involved
and influence decisions. The public has the ability to persuade the school board; therefore, it is to the
advantage of the public to attend the school board meetings regularly and be prepared to deliberate. 5
In the State College Area School District there are several volunteer committees which the public may
join, called the Citizen Advisory Committees. 47 The members of each committee become experts in
their respective areas. Each committee has a leader who privately converses with the school board. 6
This is done mainly to get people to speak openly and to allow the school board the opportunity to
listen to the expertise of the committee leader. Even though the committees have expertise on particular
subjects, the committees do not have authority.
Should the public carry more weight? For the State College High School building project, public
opinion was only one factor of many that the School Board members had to keep balanced. Was there
a significant percentage of people against the school board’s decision or did a small group create a
large fuss? How educated were these people on the facts. It is the school board’s job to take in as
much information as needed, with an open mind. Public opinion is important to them. It is what gets
them elected. However, not everyone will be completely happy with every decision. That is not a
reason to stay quiet. The more voices that are heard, the better impression the school board can get of
the opinion of the general public.
E-Forum:
E-forums bring new communication and polling devices into the public forum. There are several types
of e-forms, from totally online open forums to limited forums which add in the use of electronics by
giving users the ability to answer questions anonymously and view the results in real-time on screen.
At a student-led Safe School summit in Parker, Texas, Congressman Sam Johnson took the honorary
chair and overlooked a summit at which this technology was used. 300 students participated from 20
high schools and community organizations to discuss school violence. In this forum each student was
given an e-forum keypad and asked a series of questions for which they were to answer using their
keypad. The answers were then displayed anonymously on screen along with this there were several
5
6
7
Burkholder, Robert and Nicholas Covolus and Steven Glaser. “Legal Monitoring of the State College District School Board:
An Informational Report.” Pennsylvania State University English 202C, 9 August 2006.
5 Gill 2006
6 Dave Hutchinson, interview by Brandon Prego, State College, Pennsylvania, 8 November 2006.
4
sessions during which people could call out answers to their questions such as in an open or limited
forum. This combination of forums allowed students to each have their own input without the fear of
scrutiny from other. On the same note, it also was less personal and only allowed students to give a
simple, short, predefined answer by pressing a key. In this forum, students could view all the results
from their peers on screen and see how the group felt rather than just hearing one person’s opinion
being voiced at a time such as another type of forum or a monitoring committee which limit who can
talk and when they can talk. E-forums besides this example also allow people who could not leave their
homes such as the elderly the ability to get their voices heard, but this is dependent on a person’s ability
to use the technology, which is not a factor in an SLT, Monitoring Committee or any other type of
Public Forum. 16, 20
Use of a Mediator/Arbitrator
The definition of a mediator is one who interposes between parties in order to reconcile their
differences. 78 An arbitrator’s role is similar to that of a mediator, but the arbitrator has the authority to
make a final decision while a mediator has no authority. Mediators and arbitrators work best when they
are unbiased so that their techniques, opinions, or decisions are not influenced by any of the parties
involved. A mediator is better in a situation that is very heated and involves many parties. An
arbitrator is more effective with issues that are not as imperative, and do not affect as many people.
State College Area School Board currently acts much like an arbitrator, listening to public viewpoints
during Open Discussion at board meetings before making any final decisions. General public forum
meetings about various issues are held throughout the community, as well as Citizen Advisory
Committees who hold regular meetings regarding issues involving the State College area School
District. 89 These Student Advisory Committees and the school board meetings do not have active
mediators during meetings. 910 The open forum meetings in the community have mediators assigned by
the local public issues steering committee. 10 The role of the mediators is to ensure that all members of
the discussion group are heard, and that the group stays on task, actively deliberating the issues at hand.
10
These mediators lack the authority to formulate or persuade decisions. They can only identify
common issues within their discussion forums.1011
Stafford County Public Forum
Many schools currently employ a similar system to the one mentioned above. One example of a
public forum being used at another school district can be seen in Stafford County, Virginia. The school
board publishes advertisements for its forums in the local newspaper. These advertisements encourage
people to attend the public forums on various community and school issues.12 The forums are used to
discuss a strategic plan that will serve the school district for several years to come. The school board
wants public voice influencing all their decisions.
8
9
10
11
12
7
8
Merriam-Webster Online, Mediate, 2006, <http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/mediates> (6 November 2006).
State College, Board of, 2006
9
State College Area School District, About CACs, 2006, <http://www.scasd.org/249712031192243/site/default.asp> (3
November 2006).
10
Patterson, Rachel M. Interview by John Erik Bluvas. State College, PA, 6 November, 2006.
Stafford County Sun. 2006. School Board Anounces Public Forum.
http://www.insidenova.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=ISN%2FMGArticle%2FSCS_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&ci
d=1149191052395&path=!news
(accessed November 8, 2006)
The county emphasizes public input and participation, and outlines the topics they want to talk
about and include all necessary information for attending this forum in the newspaper announcements.
They also provide contact information and locations, including the procedure of the forum and noting
important deliberation tactics. The forum is actually run and funded by the county and they note that
their primary goal is to obtain input for revising current community issues.13
Stafford County usually holds their public forums at different schools in the area. In an October
19 , 2006 article in the local newspaper, it describes how Stafford County holds their public forums.14
The public forums usually have a hired moderator to run the forums. The moderator and his associates
record and poll the resident participates very closely. Afterwards they compile the data to reflect
community interests and priorities. This information shows a ranking of community issues and needs.
The hired persons then take the information and try to revise current plans and propose possible
solutions in response to the forums.
th
Positive and Negative Aspects of the Public Forum Methods
There are different public forum and mediation styles applicable to various situations. Some may be
more appropriate than others. How much weight should public opinion carry? Currently, it does not
carry much, but is supposedly taken into consideration by the School Board who makes the ultimate
decision. If public forums are given more weight, how will it be structured? A meeting that is open to
the public, while it may not give an accurate display of the population, will ensure that everyone who
wants to say something will have a voice. An invitational meeting, on the other hand, could ensure an
even sampling of public opinion, although exclusive. Is a mediator necessary? The use of a mediator
would ensure a compromise between the public and the school board; however, the possibility of a well
thought out decision would be at risk. Regardless of how a public forum is structured, it cannot be
successful without public involvement.
Tensions among Participants
The ideal public forum is an open discussion where ideas are deliberated and problems solved
quickly. This is difficult to achieve due to people’s natural tendencies to champion their own ideas and
serve the interests of those close to them. Even when a common goal is agreed upon, the best method
to achieve that goal may not be obvious to everyone. These tensions, found within the members of the
forum, foster deliberation. If there were no tensions, no forums would be needed, and innovative ideas
through collaboration would never be reached. Still, they are the main challenges to progress.
People are often unable to resolve an issue because they are talking past one another; they are
so focused on furthering their own agenda that they fail to comprehend that the “opposing” viewpoint
is compatible with their own. A common example in government-civic relations is a failure to
differentiate between what is a good idea, and what is one the government has a duty to enforce. While
13
14
Stafford County Sun. 2006. County Seeks input for plan.
http://www.insidenova.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=ISN%2FMGArticle%2FSCS_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&ci
d=1149191067984&path=!news\
(accessed November 8, 2006)
Stafford County Sun. 2006. Public Provides Input for County’s Top Priorities.
http://www.staffordcountysun.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=SCS/MGArticle/SCS_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&ci
d=1149191247066&path=
(accessed November 8, 2006)
every parent wants well-rounded children, debates about extracurricular activities may leave one side
thinking the other wants to exclude children from such activities, when in reality they simply don’t feel
the school system needs to provide them. This is why encouraging participants in a public forum to
research and clearly present their ideas and motivation is critical.
Once such unnecessary friction and tension is eliminated through guidelines and moderation,
the only tensions left are the “pure” tensions, those genuine incompatibilities between different
people’s needs and desires. Overcoming these is the real issue, but often a much simpler task than
getting people organized and communicating in an efficient manner.
Arguments In Support Of:
Open Forum:
 Gives people better knowledge of their community.
 Community planners and local government get an idea for areas of improvement.
Limited Forum:
 Focuses on a specific problem in the community or group.
 Usually settles disputes in a timely fashion.
E-Forum:
 Allows everyone in the forum to voice their opinion and see everyone else’s in realtime.
 Allows people unable to leave their home the ability to voice their opinion.
All:
 Brings together people from many different social, economical, and educational groups.
Arguments In Opposition To:
Open Forum:
 The broad range of discussion topics.
 Lack of resolution to a problem sometimes a fifty-fifty situation.
Limited Forum:
 Only open to those invited.
 Limited speech can result in lack of new ideas.
E-Forum:
 Dependent on a person’s ability to use/access new technology.
 Can be very impersonal.
All:
 With the many different groups, debates can become very heated and turn into a
debate rather than a discussion.
Polls and Referenda
Polls and referenda are means to gather information about the opinion of a body using
sampling. Opinion polls are the most popular form of polls and are of interest when dealing with
school board decisions because the outlook of the public is strictly opinion. Opinion polls are typically
used when determining the general course of action an elected body should take or to assess decisions
that have already been made. Referenda are direct votes of the public to accept or reject particular
proposals and are the most structured of all sampling techniques. Often referenda are used to reach a
final decision and include a small list of possible options that have been previously analyzed. Each one
of these sampling tactics has inherent differences.
Historic Use of Polls and Referenda
National Level Usage
Getting the public involved in decision making can be accomplished through the use of polls
and referenda. For example, several states throughout the United States including Georgia, Kansas,
and Delaware pursed the addition of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in their science
curriculum. Several national polls in this referendum were taken to get an estimate of public concern.
One poll taken was designed to determine the number of people paying attention to this issue through
newspaper and TV coverage. Another poll was aimed at getting a feel for public opinion concerning
the credibility of evolution and intelligent design. One of the final polls aimed at an average
percentage of those in favor of and against the addition of intelligent design into the science
curriculum. Figure 1 shows the results of a poll in the December 2004 Newsweek regarding public
opinion accepting or rejecting the addition of intelligent design. These examples of referenda
ultimately lead Kansas State School Board to aggressively pursue the addition of intelligent design as
an alternative to evolution. 15
Figure 1
Adaptation to School Board Level
With these same types of polls, the State College School Board could gauge who is following
the issue of renovation, who has enough knowledge of the issues surrounding renovation to decide if
the school board has reason enough to move forward, and finally who is for and against the project.
Unfortunately, according to the polling done by fellow students who prepared the information
packet entitled “Study of School Board Decision-Making Process: Methods of Research and
Dissemination of Information”, most of the public polled did not see how the renovation projected
15
Nisbet, M., and Nisbet, C. 2005. Evolution and Intelligent Design: Understanding Public
Opinion. Geotimes,
September 2005.
affected them economically. However, the question remained as to why the school board did not
ensure the information was distributed to the majority of the public.16 It is clear that initiating polls
regarding the school boards decision would help increase deliberation among the community by
increasing public awareness, understanding, and involvement in the decision-making process
concerning the renovation.
Values and Tensions
A value is an ideal that is held by one or more people and applies to most if not all decisions
made by the individual group who possesses the value. Values are fundamental to people because
values shape their perspective of the world around them and the basis for the actions they take. While
different processes hold different values there are several that are constant across the spectrum. For
example, children deserve the best education that can be provided. Supporters of polls and referenda
share the following three values:

Democratic Procedure

Fairness and Equality

Thoroughness
Inherently there will be tensions within this method of decision making. These issues are
internal to polls and referenda and affect those in favor of this approach.
Democratic Procedure
The common link between these values is a sense of democracy. The polls and referenda
process is one that takes the time to listen to what everyone has to say and then takes the action that the
most people believe is the right thing to do. However, as already stated this is a lengthy process, and
when a community member goes through the entire process only to have their idea rejected it can lead
to frustration within the system.
Democracy is a form of government, or power, in which the majority rules, and power is vested
in the people.17 Polls and referenda are a highly democratic process and allow the community to decide
on issues or possible solutions to a problem at hand. As can be seen by the government here in the
United States, this power can also be exercised indirectly by elected officials. In this kind of system
should certain votes or opinions be regarded as more important? For example should an expert, a
parent, a school board member, and any eligible member of the community have equal say in the
decision of a new building project, or issues affecting the education of students?
Fairness and Equality
Another value held by this particular process is that everyone in the community has a voice that
deserves to be heard. The decision made by the school board affects everyone in the community, not
16
Rhoades, M., Grofcsik, M., Schwenn, K., and Lin, D. Study of School Board Decision-Making Process: Research
methods and Dissemination of Information. The Pennsylvania State University. Summer, 2006.
17
Dictionary.com. Online, s.v. “democracy”. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy>
(accessed November 5, 2006)
just students and parents. These affected people all have a valid opinion of the issues being
deliberated, and as such all valid opinions should be considered.
Fairness and equality also cause tensions internally to the polls and referenda method of
decision-making. Allowing everyone to have a voice also gives rise to the possibility of selective
participation. In other words, some may only participate in polls and referenda pertaining to issues
that are important to them, which can give skewed or inaccurate results. Conversely, everyone can
affect a decision even on issues that do not directly apply to them. Allowing an equal voice among all
community members can also overshadow the opinion of an expert by a majority decision.
Thoroughness
Lastly, the poll and referenda process provides the thoroughness that is required for any serious
decision. Thoroughness is an important value for this process; a tradeoff must be made between
quality of the decision and the time it takes to reach the decision, with quality being considered more
important than timeliness.
Another value upheld by this style of decision making is that it allows a thorough investigation
of the issue at hand. This equates to more time involved as well. Finding suitable time limits for the
results can also cause tensions. Some community members may require extra time to complete their
surveys, polls, and referenda, while some may rather the results be returned more quickly
corresponding to a shorter deadline. However, if a more time-consuming, more thorough form were
distributed it would allow greater insight into the public’s opinion, such as their reasoning, or other
ideas. Also some issues may be more pertinent than others and require a faster decision be made.