JAY – People interested in commenting at a Jay School Committee meeting will need to arrive about 15 minutes before it starts.

The School Committee will implement the new practice at its meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6, at the Middle School cafeteria. The meeting will conclude with a budget overview for the 2005-2006 school year.

The School Committee is modifying the public comment portion of its meetings, Chairman Clint Brooks said in an e-mail.

Anyone wishing to address the committee is asked to come about 15 minutes early and sign a designated request form, Brooks said.

The form will ask each individual for their name and the topic they would like to comment upon, he said.

“At the appropriate juncture of each meeting, I will call on those individuals and ask them to please come to the front of the room where they can be more readily heard by each board member,” Brooks said. “The purpose of this change is to speed up the flow of our meetings, allowing us to address all agenda items in a more expeditious manner by avoiding much of the redundancy that frequently occurs during this time.”

Before the budget overview, the committee is slated to consider approval of a field trip to Quebec City, appointments, and the nomination of Kara Boone as a special services education technician II.

The board will also take up the class assignment policy for kindergarten through grade eight, and a hazing policy, both for the third and final reading, according to the agenda.

Two other policies are to have a first reading: student medication administration and life-sustaining emergency care.