Note: These minutes should be considered preliminary until they are approved at the
next Policy and Amendment Committee meeting.
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Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) Policy and Amendment Committee
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Regular meeting 2:30 pm
Hybrid meeting: WSESU Central Office, 53 Green St., Brattleboro, VT and
Remotely via Zoom
DRAFT MINUTES
Policy and Amendment Committee members present: Deborah Stanford (DS, Chair),
Tim Maciel (TM), Anne Beekman (AB)
WSESD/U Staff and Administrators present: Superintendent Mark Speno (MS), Mo Hart
(MH), Michael Kelliher (MK), Paul Smith (PS), Kerry Amidon (KA)
Guests attending: Aidy Holding (AH, via Zoom), Shannon Kelly (SK), Mikaela Simms
(via Zoom), Liz Adams (via Zoom)
Call to Order
Chair DS convened the meeting at 2:30 pm and read the hybrid statement.
I. Approval of Minutes and confirmation of next meeting date
The minutes of 11/21/23 meeting approved by assent.
The next Policy and Amendment Committee meetings are scheduled for:
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
As of January 2024, the new meeting schedule for the Policy and Amendment
Committee will be first and third Wednesdays, 2:30-4:30 pm.
II. Updates from 11/28/23 Board Meeting
• The following policy was presented for a first reading on 11/28/23 and will go for a second reading on 12/12/23:
o F32 Student Distribution of Literature
• The following policy went for a second reading on 11/28/23 and will be presented for adoption on 12/12/23:
o D1 (Personnel Recruitment, Selection, Appointment and Background Checks)
• The following policies were re-adopted by the Board on 11/28/23:
o F2 (Bus Discipline)
o D11 (Public Complaints about Personnel)
o C9 (Board Commitment to Non-Discrimination)
Brief conversation on Leadership Councils
• DS raised the question, with regards to Article 15, of whether LCs are required to exist in every school.
• AB: They are required by articles of agreement, but if schools can’t get anyone to participate, then what?
• MS reported that there was a good LC orientation right before the break and almost all schools have been represented so far at orientation. Some good ideas came up at the meeting, including the possibility of having a mid-year check in to share challenges and successes, and to foster conversations among schools.
This may happen in March.
III. Policies
F36 Student Freedom of Expression in School Sponsored Media
• F36 was reviewed with edits.
• F36 will go for a 1st reading on 12/12.
F1 Student Conduct and Discipline
• Discussion revolved around ways to disseminate F1 and get feedback on the policy in its current form, before it goes for a first reading.
o MS will forward it electronically to the Admin team, take it to the Admin meeting on 12/15, and can invite people to come to the Policy and Amendment Committee meeting on January 3 to discuss it.
o For student input, Hannah can forward it to the leadership teams.
• The question was raised about discussing the possibility of two policies–one for the high school and one for everyone else.
• PS has edits to F1 from discussion with MS after last meeting. He will send the edits to MH and DS prior to next meeting.
• F1 is on hold until 1/3, awaiting further feedback.
D7 Volunteers and Work Study Students
• Minor edits were suggested and accepted to clean up pages 2 and 3.
• A recommendation was added as number 6 under Administrative Procedures: “Seatbelts and vehicle seating: District recommends that no student be seated in the front passenger seat unless said student is the driver’s child.”
• D7 will go for a 1st reading on 12/12.
G8 – Continuous Improvement Plan
• TM gave background statement for G8:
Per Act 46 of 2015, “The school board approves and monitors implementation of the district education plan and relevant performance indicators.” And “Approves school continuous improvement plans and reviews regular performance reports as provided by Superintendent (VT AOE, “Roles and Responsibilities in Vermont School system).
Also, the AOE’s District Quality Standards states that “The Board of each SU/SD… adopts a vision and measurable goals and regularly reviews the progress towards those goals. (113.1.1) and “At least annually the Board sets measurable goals and regularly reviews the progress toward those goals.” And “At least annually, the Board monitors student academic progress and wellness” (113.1.2).
These standards are supported by two of our policies:
F22: Student Assessment:
The Superintendent, supported by the Office of Curriculum and Assessment, will develop a Comprehensive Assessment Plan.
The School District Board will annually review the Comprehensive Assessment Plan
G1: Curriculum Development and Coordination: The Superintendent (or his/her designee) shall conduct systematic evaluations of all programs within the curriculum and report to the school board at least annually These are AOE justifications for a Continuous Improvement Plan, but what is really driving this policy is stated well in The Governance Core in discussion of a shared moral imperative: “The moral purpose is geared to real, concrete educational goals for children. It is not so much a philosophical belief as it is a commitment to shared fundamental actions, such as:
– All children will achieve; we will not allow an achievement gap in our district.
– All children will have quality teachers.
– All children will be in a safe, healthy learning environment
• Given the legislative responsibility here, TM feels that the Board needs to approve the goals, preferably by vote. Also, if we’re going to collaboratively establish goals, the work needs to be done in the summer, not in the middle of the year.
• MS: The goal of the retreat last year was to have a day where the CIP was an essential outcome — not by a vote from the board, but agreement in terms of goals for the school year. It would be great to have the Board vote on the goals.
• MS: In the current calendar: The CIP is presented in September at the start of school year. Throughout the year, there are separate presentations that are elements of the greater CIP. We formally come back to the overall CIP to review it at the first meeting in June, setting up for collaboration at the Board-Admin retreat in June.
o Brief comments on Board/Admin collaboration followed with the note that at the last retreat in September, board members were seated as guests and had no say in forming the agenda. Furthermore, instead of Admin presenting goals to the board for yes/no approval, the Board and Admin must develop them together.
• A discussion took place about assessment data.
o PS: We are looking at assessment data on a regular basis.
• A discussion on PD included the following considerations:
o PS: If we are going to undertake actions to reach our goals, we may need to start planning in February for PD that will take place the following year.
o TM: Many policies require PD: D12, F9, F10, F37, E11, and we’re talking now about PD for gender.
o TM: D2 (Professional Development) states that the Superintendent will report annually to Board on the effectiveness of staff PD.
▪ DS: We’re seeing the linking of policies. G8 is huge in terms of how the district operates.
o MS: Our PD plan reflects the goals we set for CIP.
o MS: We need to utilize the time that is built into the weekly schedule with staff meetings. This is a topic we keep coming back to.
▪ AH: With equity and social justice teacher leaders, we’ve done great trainings during staff meeting times. Last spring we did a training on how to respond to harm done to trans and gender expansive students, and it went well. People are utilizing the skills.
▪ DS: Important to get actively engaged rather than lectured to.
• DS brought up the previous discussion (11/7 meeting) on the extent to which G8 is SD policy versus SU policy. DS’s thought is that this is an SD committee, not SU. Maybe we need to consider the scope of the SU, but for now, this is an SD policy. It would require a close reading from SU.
• Conversation ensued about considering forming a CIP committee and the role of LCs
o Concern that there isn’t capacity for another committee, and there may not be a need.
o PS: Number 5: “Each fall, the Principal will engage the school’s Leadership Council in the CIP development.”
▪ TM: So we can think of the LC’s as nine committees doing ad-hoc CIP work?
▪ DS concerned that this committee would be changing the working guidelines of LCs, and the comment would come back that this committee is mandating a change to LCs.
▪ LCs are not mimics of each other and they are evolving.
▪ For number 5 — change “will” to “may”? That leaves it up to LCs. They could be invited to participate in the process.
• Returning to page 1 and the question of Board approval of goals: put approval back in: “The CIP will then be presented for a review, and discussion, and approval by vote at regular board meetings.”
• Further minor edits in punctuation and word choice were agreed upon.
• Several items were discussed regarding the list under #1 Implementation in G8:
o A discussion took place on possibly adding office discipline referrals (ODR) to this list, but it was decided against, given hesitation from Admin regarding the time it would take and the limited usefulness of the data for this circumstance.
o Wording will be changed for student poverty and gender differences.
o The question was raised on whether race/ethnicity could be added to the list, and if that data could be disaggregated.
• MH will get a new version of G8 with today’s edits ready to include with the next agenda.
• TM will work on a timeline for G8 activities.
• G8 is on hold until the next meeting.
Gender freedom in schools
• As requested by DS at the last meeting, AH and SK put together a statement regarding the need to revisit/revise F34 (Transgender and Gender Creative Students). This statement, outlining the goals of the new policy, was shared via email with the committee and other attendees of the last meeting. AH and SK would like to bring more stakeholders and community members into the discussion and will be working on a revised policy proposal that brings together F34 with their original proposed Gender Freedom in Schools policy and elements of Champlain Valley School Districts F38 (Transgender and Nonbinary Students Policy).
• It was acknowledged that this work needs to be done mindfully, without rushing.
• A discussion ensued around bathrooms and what could be done to improve the situation in the near term:
o What changes could be made immediately without a budgetary burden on schools? Larger structural changes would need to be planned for.
o If there are substantial changes for the budget, it would need to happen very quickly.
o To create all-gender bathrooms, stalls would need to be lengthened all the way to the ground and up to the ceiling.
o Multi-stall bathrooms could be converted to single use by locking the outside door.
▪ But some of those bathrooms don’t have outside doors.
o The question was raised on whether this is a policy discussion. It is about implementation, so wouldn’t it be a discussion for the superintendent and principals? Implementation should be left to the schools.
o The policy (F34) says there should be accommodations to keep identity
private, but if the only bathroom a student can use is the single-use staff bathroom, that does not protect the student’s identity.
o Another possible way to restructure the bathroom setup and convert to single-use, is to remove the wall that goes to the hall. That opens the entire thing, with the added benefit of potentially eliminating disciplinary problems and drug deal locations.
AH agreed that this sort of design would fulfill the goal of the current policy and AOE guidance for protecting a student’s identity.
o There are some single-use bathrooms in our schools that are gender specific, and they could be changed to all-gender bathrooms.
o Restructuring space and walls would not seem to be a light-weight financial commitment, and it would need to be looked at from school to school.
o MS – This is not a new discussion at the HS — we’ve talked about it in terms of solving other problems we’ve had. We can follow up with maintenance folks and get realistic school-site approaches based on individual schools. We can use Robert Clark as a point person to start that up.
o AH will bring a revised version of the proposed Gender Freedom in Schools policy to the 1/3/24 meeting
Agenda for the next meeting (12/19/23) will include:
G8
Agenda for 1/3/24 will include:
F1
Gender Freedom in Schools
Meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm
Notes taken by Anna Monders (recorder)
Submitted by Tim Maciel (vice chair)
Photos – next page
