During the ISD 200 School Board meeting on Wednesday, March 25, vice-chairperson Jessica Dressely
presented the policies report.
During the policy committee meeting, members focused on the first reading and consent of several policies, including student attendance, protection and privacy of pupil records, testing, accommodations, and school district budget modifications.
“All of these changes and updates were based on legislative amendments or statutory provisions,” says Dressely.
Vice-chairperson Dressely also shared that the revised 600 series policies, which deal with curriculum and instruction, and the school board handbook were sent to Terry Morrow, the general legal advisor for the Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA). For Morrow, Dressely explained how changes and additions were implemented and highlighted the handbook’s eight-page statutory requirements section that Dressely says isn’t anywhere else in Minnesota.
After the meeting, KDWA connected with ISD 200 Treasurer Mark Zuzek. About refining the 600 series policies, Zuzek said:
“The whole group of policies has to do with curriculum and instruction. And from our opinion, it was kind of a mess the way that it was organized, and it was very redundant. They would have the same clause in a particular model policy several times, and it was just wasting ink.”
For further understanding, KDWA connected with ISD 200 School Board vice chairperson Dressely for background and the importance of the 600 series policies.
“So, the reason it’s 600 series in our district is so important is because typically, we don’t stray very far from MSBA and model policy. So, MSBA model policy, they develop and maintain a comprehensive policy manual that we have access to because we’re a member district. 320 other school districts also use model policies and don’t veer very far off of what the model policy language is, we do a little bit of tweaking almost on every policy. But for the 600 series, it was a massive deviation from what the model policy language was, because there was one statute that went across 10 policies in that series, and it just created a lot of overlap and confusion. So that’s why we dug into this late we did, and he seems we’re blessed enough to have three board members that have a little bit more time than maybe the typical board member would. I’m a stay-at-home mom. Mark’s a retired educator and administrator, and Chairperson Carrie has flexible hours, so we have a lot of time to dig into this the way that statute and the legislature says that we should as board members, and so that’s how we were able to, over the past year, cultivate our 600 Series Education Program policies.”
Dressely further explains a unique quality of the ISD 200 School Board when sorting through complicated policy.
“So, we’re the only school district in the state, actually, that does policies the way we do with our policy committee. Most school districts have their administrative assistant do all of the policy revisions, and then the administrative assistant brings it to the board. But like I said, we’re very blessed to have board members that are on the committee that have the time and space to be able to meet with administrators once or twice a month and really work on what works for us in…and what we see with a stable framework.”
Dressely explains the reason for sending the 600 series policy and school board handbook to Terry Morrow of MSBA and the possible action steps for model policy.
“And so we sent our whole series to him to say, ‘Hey, this is what we did. Maybe some of these will work for model policies. Maybe they won’t, maybe some of it will work, but we’d like you to take a look and you feel there’s value in it.’ So, if they adopt it, then it becomes a model policy, and then it’s available statewide to the 340 school districts across the state that adopt model policy on a quite regular basis.
Vice Chair Dressely wants to hear from the public and extends an invitation.
“So, we have a really long policy adoption period. So, from the time the policy committee is done with the policy and brings your recommendations to the board for first reading, there are three months before that policy is actually adopted, and I encourage community members, teachers, administrators are in the room during our policy committee meetings. They have a lot of input already, but for community members and teachers to feel free to give feedback, send me emails, send the board emails, and the committee emails, come talk to us during public comments, and we’d love to answer any questions you have, and we’d love to hear your input before the policies adopted that’s why we do these readings.”
[To listen to the full broadcast, click the soundbite.]