Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board members approved on first reading 14 district-wide policies meant to consolidate 26 previous policies.
The policies must receive consent from board members on two readings to be fully approved. The second reading of the policy packet is scheduled for the school board meeting on Sept. 9.
This first group of policies is a part of a wider reorganization, meant to simplify and streamline BCSC’s policy structure and eliminate any redundancies, school district officials have said.
Board members voted on July 15 to terminate an agreement with NEOLA, the education consulting firm that assisted with BCSC policies previously, and approve an agreement with Indianapolis-based firm Church Church Hittle and Antrim as a replacement.
The firm is managing BCSC’s board policy platform and will update policies based on changes in state and federal legislation, as well as changes in case law.
The proposed policies have no substantive changes from the previous policies, BCSC Superintendent Chad Phillips said, with the exception of one — Policy B175, “Functions.”
B175 requires that any proposed new policies be posted for at least 14 days before the first reading, as is the case with the current policy, but if a board member wanted to have a public work session to discuss one or more of the proposed policies, it would now necessitate a majority vote by board members.
“Based on our current policy, that has not yet been replaced by B175, we would need to have a public work session between now and the second reading. (This proposes) the board basically waive that as a procedural requirement, if all of the board members agree that there’s no need for that with these reorganized policies,” Phillips said. ” … If we move forward and approve B175, then in the future, there would just be a time right now when a board member would say, ‘I propose that we pull out the no tobacco policy and have a public work session before the second reading,’ the board could vote on that, and we would do so, if the majority of the board voted to.”
Language for all the proposed policies can be found on BCSC’s BoardDocs platform.
The following is a list of the proposed policies, and the NEOLA policies they would be replacing:
- Policy A200, “Firearms, Weapons and Destructive Devices,” replacing NEOLA policies 3217, 4217, 5772, 7217
- Policy A225, “Reporting of Suspected Child Abuse or Neglect,” replacing NEOLA policy 8462
- Policy A250, “No Tobacco Policy,” replacing NEOLA policies 3215, 4215, 5512, 7434
- Policy A300, “Responsible Use of Technology,” replacing NEOLA policies 7530, 7530.02, 7540, 7540.01, 7540.02, 7540.03, 7540.04
- Policy A301, “Wireless Communication Devices”, replacing same NEOLA policies as A300
- Policy A350, “Civility and Decorum,” replacing NEOLA policy 9160
- Policy B175, “Functions,” replacing NEOLA policy 0131.1
- Policy C175, “Attendance, Academic Engagement & Truancy Prevention Policy,” replacing NEOLA policy 5200
- Policy C575, “Homework,” replacing NEOLA policy 2330
- Policy D100, “District Organization,” replacing NEOLA policy 1100
- Policy D200, “Standard of Care & Supervision of Students,” replacing NEOLA policies 3213, 4213
- Policy D225, “Staff Ethics,” replacing NEOLA policy 3210
- Policy D250, “Teacher Appreciation Grant,” replacing NEOLA policy 3220.01
- Policy G360, “Data Breach and Protection,” replacing NEOLA policy 8305
