The Long Beach Board of Education will add a call-in option for those who want to provide public comment at meetings but don’t feel comfortable attending in person.

Until now, the public could only send comments via email, which were then read aloud during board meetings, or participate in the meetings in person.

The new phone-in comment system will cost about $17,000, said Chris Itson, the head of marketing and media services for the district.

The board has struggled  with the balance between hearing public comment on important issues like re-opening schools and racial justice, and meetings that have lasted hours longer than usual. At the last several board meetings, the typical public comment windows of 30 minutes on agendized items and 30 minutes on non-agendized items have been expanded to an hour each to meet increased demand.

Board member Jon Meyer opposed the motion, saying the additional options for giving comment were excessive.

“This strikes me as a form of exaggerated democracy,” he said. “It’s so complicated and convoluted.”

Board member Juan Benitez said they will still be responsive via email, although he noted that he’d been receiving such a high volume of messages that it wasn’t possible to respond to all of them.

“This (vote) doesn’t prevent folks from emailing us,” he said. “They’re just not going to be read at the meetings.”

The next meeting of the LBUSD Board of Education will be Sept. 16.