Lawrence Public Schools Superintendent Kyle Hayden, left, and Board President Marcel Harmon, middle, listen during the school board's regular meeting Monday, Dec. 12, 2016, as a group of parents and residents demand answers about the district's investigation and settlement with South Middle School social studies teacher Chris Cobb, who had been accused of making racist remarks in class.

The Lawrence school board is going into the new year by reflecting on the tumult that dominated board meetings in the final weeks of 2016 while also offering potential pathways to increased public participation in 2017, including by insisting on civil conduct at meetings.

School board president Marcel Harmon at Monday’s meeting sought to set a new tone for meetings in the year ahead, beginning with a few acknowledgements and apologies — and also some demands.

“I wanted to start out this evening by acknowledging that just as institutional racism and unconscious biases still exist in society, so do they still exist in Lawrence’s schools, and that our students of color and other minorities thus unjustly bear the resulting pain and hardships that impact their success, health and happiness, now and in their futures,” Harmon said during his customary president’s report at Monday’s meeting. “And that their families are understandably concerned and even outraged. As board president, I will personally apologize for my own slowness in making such a clear and concise acknowledgement during any of my previous reports, as well as my slowness in pushing for the community conversations that will be critical for us moving forward.”

And so began Harmon’s five-minute speech that, in its first half, recognized the “general angst,” as he later described it, of the parents and community members who regularly spoke out — sometimes in a manner that Harmon and many others found disruptive — at board meetings following the investigation and eventual resignation of a South Middle School teacher who was accused of making racist comments in class last fall.

On Tuesday, Harmon said he did not believe those feelings — cries for transparency in the South case, as well as overarching concerns about racial equity — were unjustified. What the school board won’t tolerate, he said, is disruptive behavior that breaks from standard protocol and derails the regular business of board meetings.

In the second half of his speech, Harmon outlined changes to meeting structure that he hopes will maintain productivity as well as meaningful public engagement.

“The last several board meetings have seen one meeting completely disrupted and in others some uncivil and repetitive patron commentary, distracting to the point where important reports about board goals aren’t receiving the focus and scrutiny they deserve,” Harmon said Monday in his report. “We’d like to see that change.”

His remarks Monday asked commenters to follow the requests listed on the sign-up form for audience participation: “This is your time to share your opinions, but we ask that you avoid making comments of a personal nature about any district employee or student, including the use of personal names,” the document reads. “We also request that you remain civil when speaking and/or listening.”

Protocol also asks that people limit comments to five minutes each, and that one person be appointed to speak on behalf of the group in the event that several people have the same comments to share.

The process hasn’t been altered since the Dec. 12 meeting that was adjourned abruptly amid audience outbursts and police being called to district offices, Harmon said. Rather, his remarks on Monday night served as a reminder of policy that perhaps hasn’t always been adequately publicized, Harmon told the Journal-World.

During his report, Harmon also said that, “if we become aware of threats made against district employees, board members, parents or other community members working with the district, either in person, electronically or via social media, we will report that to the authorities, and it may also result in the person(s) being banned from district properties.”

Harmon later told the Journal-World that he wasn’t aware of any specific threats, but that he had heard about some statements made on social media platforms that could be construed that way. Dec. 12’s meeting was unusually “aggressive,” Harmon noted, and involving the authorities would only happen as “an absolute last resort” to maintain order.

“If something were to occur down the road, and people weren’t thinking and did something or said something that resulted in being banned, I don’t want that to happen,” Harmon said Tuesday. “Let’s be clear now in case anybody hadn’t really thought about it before. It is policy, and part of what’s come out of all of this is that we’re not always as clear with the public as we need to be.”

Public participation at school board meetings can provide important feedback on board goals, Harmon said Monday, as well as a stepping stone for community members to become more actively engaged as partners in the board’s educational mission.

And part of that is the observance of meeting structure, Harmon said.

“This doesn’t mean that you can’t be critical of the board, administration or teachers/staff, or show emotion,” he said Monday. “You can even ask for the resignation of every board member. We simply ask that you do so in a civil manner.”