While speakers at the most recent Brevard school board focused on a variety of topics, there was a central theme of the night: Nearly every commenter was interrupted by the board chair.
During the agenda-related portion of public comment at the April 28 Brevard school board meeting, five speakers addressed the board, with a sixth who signed up to speak moved to the non-agenda public comment portion of the meeting without explanation. The five speakers addressed concerns related to student expulsions; the district’s diversion program; a proposed policy that would allow for more spending without getting competitive quotes; and more.
Board Chair Matt Susin repeatedly interrupted them, and both Susin and board member Katye Campbell questioned whether or not the content of speakers’ comments was related to the agenda.
Ultimately, multiple people were cut off, with some moved to the non-recorded, non-agenda portion of public comment at the end of the meeting.
Speakers cut off, questioned about comments’ relation to agenda
Bill Pearlman, a retired teacher and the first speaker of the evening, received immediate pushback when he addressed a proposed policy that would increase the district’s spending ability without first getting competitive quotes. The policy had been pulled from the agenda at the start of the meeting.
“We pulled that, Mr. Pearlman, I apologize, we pulled that,” Susin said, interrupting Pearlman about seven seconds into Pearlman’s comment.
A back-and-forth ensued between the two, with Pearlman arguing that it was still on a physical copy of the agenda he picked up at the meeting and that the item was listed on another part of the agenda. Ultimately, Susin allowed him to continue.
He noted particular concern over such expenses being incurred at Superintendent Mark Rendell’s discretion per the policy.
“We should consider that in the face of an operational audit that was done by the state that was released in December and showed a number of concerning issues,” Pearlman said, referencing an audit conducted by Florida’s auditor general.
Keith Schachter, who ran for the District 4 seat on Brevard’s school board in 2024, spoke next, bringing up concerns about student expulsions. He raised issue with how Susin had handled walkouts in February and was cut off by Susin and Campbell with a little more than a minute left in his allotted three minutes to speak.
“Mr. Chair, I understand the speaker was talking about the expulsion process, but now we’re talking about other comments, and this agenda item is specifically the expulsion of these students, which doesn’t have anything to do with the speaker, so I am recommending that this be moved to the non-agenda part of the meeting,” Campbell said.
Susin agreed and told Schachter he could finish his comment during the second round of public comment.
Speaker Amy Roub was stopped from commenting when she questioned if the proposed policy increasing the district’s spending ability without getting competitive quotes was related to Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running for governor. She mentioned photos of Board Vice Chair Megan Wright and board member Gene Trent with Donalds and was cut off.
“I’m explaining my point,” she said. “Stop trying to silence the public.”
Campbell remarked that her comment wasn’t “about procurement.”
“Governors and everything else is not part of it, so if you can’t control yourself, then we’ll ask you to speak during your allotted time,” Susin said while Roub’s time was paused. “Are you going to start speaking to a topic?”
Roub, like Schachter, was told to finish her comment at the end of the meeting.
Another speaker, Christine Cruz, discussed the district’s diversion policy, referencing a policy on the agenda that would remove out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for students.
Still, she was interrupted about 40 seconds into her comment, with Campbell asking, “Do you have an agenda item?”
Cruz was allowed to continue when she referenced the item by name and number.
Her concern, she said, was the placement of students of all ages in the same program.
“This is highly detrimental developmentally for younger children being with seniors or high school students, because … they’re all (at) different developmental stages,” she said, adding that she was worried her son’s rights as a disabled student were being violated.
Cecelia Trotter, who is running for Seat 5 on the school board, was the only speaker who was allowed to comment uninterrupted. And following her comment, as the board prepared to move on to the next portion of the meeting, Paul Roub called out from the audience that there should be another speaker, as he had signed up to comment.
The board went back and forth briefly before concluding public comment, with Susin saying, “We’ll just do non-agenda.”
During the meeting, board members covered other items with little to no discussion, including:
Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker. Instagram: @finchwalker_.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard’s school board cuts off multiple speakers at tense meeting
Reporting by Finch Walker, Florida Today / Florida Today
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