From the Reporter-Herald (Loveland):  The Thompson School District Board of Education’s months-long debate over how much public participation is appropriate at meetings reached a boiling point Wednesday evening, as yet another heated argument ended with board president Bob Kerrigan slamming his gavel, ordering security to remove an audience member and looking for a motion to adjourn the meeting two hours early.

Wednesday’s meeting began at 5 p.m., an hour earlier than usual. The plan was that the board would approve its agenda and then adjourn into an executive session to continue discussing negotiations with licensed staff. However, simply adopting the agenda was its own adventure.

Pam Howard got the ball rolling at the meeting’s onset by moving to allow public comment from the nine people who’d signed up to speak Wednesday. At three minutes apiece, a public comment segment presumably would have ended in around 30 minutes, which is approximately the same amount of time the board spent arguing on the matter, before it failed on a 3-3 vote; member Carl Langner did not arrive until after the vote was taken and after the board had adjourned to a closed session.

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