Two residents urged the Palmerton Area School District board Tuesday night to rethink a proposal that would cut individual public comment during meetings from five minutes to three.

The revision to Policy 903 cleared first reading as part of the consent agenda, which passed unanimously. A second reading and final adoption vote remain ahead.

Palmerton-based attorney Nick Masington, who told the board he has attended meetings for the past six months, offered a compromise: four minutes instead of three.

“It serves two purposes,” Masington said. “It cuts down the time, but it also gives you folks as board members the opportunity, if somebody complains, to say, ‘Hey, look, you’ve got more time than any other school district in the area.’ If you reduce it to three, you can’t say that.”

He questioned what the district gains. By his math, the change saves five or 10 minutes a meeting.

“I don’t know that it serves any great purpose from your end,” Masington said. “What I think it also does is it sends a message of dismissiveness to the taxpayers and to the folks that come here and want to be heard.”

Masington said he has watched residents arrive with prepared remarks.

“Unlike some of us who speak off the cuff, they really prepare,” he said. “They make notes. They really have their heart and soul into this. To reduce their time just because doesn’t make any sense.”

He rejected the rationale that neighboring districts allow three minutes.

“I’ve been to the other school districts. I’ve walked down Main Street in the other towns,” Masington said. “Don’t want to be there. Want to be here. Don’t want to be them. So I don’t really know that I care what they do.”

Palmerton resident Mary Farquhar raised a legal warning.

“I guess what we’re saying is that you’re prepared to accept any First Amendment challenges,” she said. “Five minutes already is a short amount of time if you have a point to make.”

She told directors the cut is an obstacle.

“It’s a barrier to being able to tell your feelings and your thoughts on anything,” she said. “Since we are paying the bills too, I think it’s a good thing if we don’t have barriers to that.”

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Daniel Heaney introduced the revision at the board’s Oct. 6 workshop.

He said it followed discussions he and Substitute Superintendent Ryan Kish had with the district’s solicitor.

The revision does more than shorten speaking time. It removes broader restrictions on comments that are personally directed or abusive and replaces them with specific circumstances under which a comment may be interrupted or ended.

It also clarifies the two public comment periods, one for agenda items and another for other district business, and adds procedures for speaker sign-in, meeting conduct and board responses.

Policy 903 currently allows five minutes per speaker and caps each of the two comment periods at 30 minutes. Speakers who need more time may submit written remarks by email.

Masington said he was unsure where the proposal stood when he spoke.

“I’m pretty much convinced that the horse is probably out of the barn,” he said. “But I don’t think I would sleep well if I didn’t mention it.”

Draft policies are posted on the district website under the Board of Education tab.