Districts 99 and 202 Amend Policies

'Tis the season for school district policy changes.

Last week School District 99 approved several changes to their policy. The board's policy committee, under the guidance of Assistant Superintendent Mary Biniewicz, has been working its way through the district's voluminous policy manual for some time in an effort to streamline and update the guidelines.

Now students can apply for up to two credit hours toward graduation by taking online classes. Veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, to apply for a District 99 diploma if they resided within the district before leaving high school to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Many of the older policies were more "philosophical" in nature, said Jill Browning, district communications director. In contrast, the updated policies rely heavily on wording provided by the Illinois Association of School Boards, in part to avoid potential litigation.

"For us to deviate from the IASB wording could be dangerous," said Bill White, a member of the board's policy committee.

Several other instructional policies were given a first reading by the board, allowing for public comment before they are finalized. Excerpts from those policies:

• "The superintendent or designee will invite suggestions and comments concerning the development, implementation and improvement of the school wellness policy from community members, including parents, students and representatives of the school food authority, school administrators and the public." (School Wellness, Policy 6.50)
• "The superintendent shall ensure that all school-sponsored presentations and discussions of controversial or sensitive topics in the instructional program, including those made by guest speakers, are: Age-appropriate, consistent with the curriculum and serve and educational purpose, informative and present a balanced view, respectful of the rights and opinions of everyone, not tolerant of profanity or slander." (Teaching About Controversial Issues, Policy 6.80)
• "Equal educational and extracurricular opportunities shall be available for all students without regard to color, race, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability." (Equal Educational Opportunities, Policy 7.10)
• Curriculum must contain instruction on subjects required by State statute or regulation including steroid abuse prevention, character education, citizenship values and conservation of natural resources, among others. "In addition, all schools shall hold an educational program on the U.S. Constitution on Constitution Day, Sept. 17," and "courses containing U.S. history or a combination of U.S. history and American government must view a Congressional Medal of Honor film made by the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, provided there is no cost for the film." (Curriculum Content, Policy 6.60).

At the January regular meeting, Lisle Community School District 202's board also made several adjustments to their hiring, admission and bullying/harassment policies.

District liaison Ronald Logeman provided the following summaries of policies that changed:

• 5:10 Equal Employment Opportunity and Minority Recruitment- adds credit history to the list of factors that will not prohibit candidates from being hired, unless a satisfactory credit history is an established bona fide occupational requirement of a particular position.

• 5:30 Hiring Process and Criteria -adds no substitute teacher will be hired without first presenting his or her certificate of authorization from the Regional Superintendent.  Also adds that the School Code requires that the School Board president keep any background check information confidential. (The original policy said the Board president must keep the information confidential, but didn't specifically say the School Code required it.)

• 5:90 Abuse and Neglected Child Reporting - Adds language include any students aged 18-21 within the group of any recipients of suspected abuse must be reported to DCFS.  The previous policy referred to any abused or neglect child.  Students 18-21 are not technically children, but their abuse must still be reported.

• 5:260 Student Teachers - The Superintendent will now specifically work with the higher education institution to do a background and fingerprint check of student teaching candidates.   The previous policy more generally said the District would screen candidates.

• 6:320 High School Credit for Proficiency - Eliminates the language referring to a consumer education proficiency exam since that option no longer exists.

• 7:20 Harassment of Students Prohibited -Includes the concept of harassment based on not only the students actual but also perceived race, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, etc.  Also includes stalking and threatened or actual destruction of property on the list of what the district will not tolerate.

• 7:180 Preventing Bullying, Intimidation, and Harassment--the beginning of the policy includes a more complete definition of 'bullying.'

• 7:190 Student Discipline -  Adds language to #5 to include  indecent visual depictions of yourself or others using electronic devices and #10 to reflect the updated definitions of harassment in the previous policies.

• 7:285 Food Allergies - This is a new policy that allows us to meet the new requirement that we implement a policy based on the Guidelines for Managing Life-Threatening Food Allergies in Illinois schools. In essence it states our commitment to work with the students, families and staff to reduce the risks of food allergies and provide proper treatment for allergic reactions.

• 7:50 Student Admissions and Transfers--clarifies that a student will be enrolled without a valid birth certificate.  (The parent still has the responsibility to provide in within 10 days.  If not then the school will then report the absence of the birth certificate to the local law enforcement agency.)