July 24, 2012 at 7:00 PM - July Regular Monthly Board Meeting

Rationale:  TSBA recently met with the State Department of Education's Office of Coordinated School Health to review the model wellness policy which this board had previously adopted.  In an effort to ensure a school system's interaction and participation with this state office, the following changes are being proposed to the Wellness Policy.  Dee Crabtree, Coordinator of School Health, has looked at the proposed revisions which meet with her approval.

Rationale:  This is a new policy and comes out of one of the new laws this last legislative session requiring that school districts have a policy on the relocation of students for the safety of the student or others.

Rationale:  Tennessee law provides a basic list of offenses that can result in the suspension or expulsion of a student.  The statutory change adds the assault on school bus drivers and other school personnel with obscene, vulgar or threatening language to this list.  Additional changes are just housekeeping to update the policy.

Rationale:  Charter schools were an area of interest this last legislative session, with two public chapters making extensive changes to the law.  The law extended the time in which the Board has to make decisions about applications, but a failure to act means that the application is deemed accepted. 

Another major change is that the LEA can now charge up to $500.00 as an application fee.

Rationale:  This policy was initially brought to the board at our April meeting.  At that time, the policy was tabled due to the fact that Mr. Forsee had reservations as to the nature of home schools and some of the language in the policy and Terry Looper, Supervisor of Student Services, mentioned that he might have some reservation with it.  Mr. Forsee asked for clarification if the wording was tied to law. 

Since that time, Mr. Looper has looked at the policy and no longer has any reservations with it.  The policy is tied directly to law and is recommended by TSBA.  It provides a layer of protection to school systems from the potential demands of home schoolers.

Rationale:  This recent change in the law allows some board members to participate in board meetings via electronic means.  Generally, there are only three circumstancess that permit that participation:  military service, family emergency (as defined by the Board), and an absence from the county due to work.  The last two have additional qualifiers, and you may choose to add some procedures to keep the meeting from getting bogged down.

Rationale:  TSBA has long advocated that superintendents be evaluated on an annual basis.  You have a policy in place for doing just that.  A new law makes it a requirement that an evaluation plan contain certain components.  The current evaluation instrument meets these criteria, however we need to update our policy to reflect these new requirements to be used as guidelines for developing future evaluation instruments.

Rationale:  Recent changes to the law allow for a more streamlined teacher suspension procedure, as long as the suspension if for three days or less.  This does not remove the possibility of longer suspensions.  It only abbreviates the due process requirements for suspensions of three days or less.

Rationale:  A recent change in the law allows for a more streamlined teacher suspension procedure, as long as the suspension is for three days or less.  This does not remove the possiblity of longer suspensions.  It only abbreviates the due process requirements for suspensions of three days or less.

Rationale:  All notices for non-renewal should now be sent by June 15th.  According to TSBA, there has been some confusion over this subject because the changes were recent and have come very fast.  While boards cannot impose a deadline after June 15th, they may require one before then.  According to TSBA attorneys, state law trumps board policy, however if your intent was to mirror the June 15th date in our policies, we need to make that change on this and the following policy. 

Rationale:  The attached Policy 6.313 and Adm. Procedure 6.300.2 are both affected by Public Chapter 781 which is relative to school attire, which dictates that the following language be added to the student discipline code in the list of prohibited acts:

"wearing, while on the grounds of a public school during the regular school day, clothing that exposes underwear or body parts in an indecent manner that disrupts the learning environment"

TSBA did not give direction as to where to place it in the policy.  Joel Moesley, TSBA Assistant Director of Policy and Staff Attorney, advised that first the Board and the Superintendent need to determine what level of offense they wish this to be (I, II, etc.) and then we can revise both the policy and procedure.  You may also wish to update the Dress Code to reflect this as well.

Rationale:  -New Teacher Induction
-Principal's Retreat
-Preliminary Numbers