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
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Regular meeting 2:00 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), Shannon Kelly (SK), Mo Hart (MH)
Guests: Liz Adams (LA, via zoom)
Call to Order
DS convened the meeting at 2:07 p.m. and recited the hybrid statement.
I. Approval of Minutes and confirmation of next meeting date
The minutes of 8/14/24 meeting approved by assent.
The Policy and Amendment Committee meets on second and fourth Wednesdays, from 2-4 pm at the WSESU Central Office and on Zoom.
The next meetings are scheduled for:
September 11
September 25
DS amended the agenda to include a discussion about identifying policies that require regular reports to the Board.
DS also noted that there has been a request to re-evaluate F21 (Policy on the Use of Restraint and Seclusion). AB will reach out to Harwood, a district that does not use restraint or seclusion.
II. Discussion: Policies that require reports to the Board
The committee engaged in a short discussion about how to best track/highlight policies that require a regular (e.g. annual) report to the Board. There is concern that it is hard to find that information at a glance, as it is generally buried in the text of the policy.
Thoughts and ideas included:
● Make note of the reporting schedule under the title of the policy, on the website and/or in the document. Different text color or font may be used.
● Board members are the ones who need this information, but it is good for it to be transparent for the public as well.
● The schedule for when a policy is up for review (every 3-5 years) could also be identified.
● What sort of database systems would be best for this?
● Prior work on this has been done: the spreadsheet SK recently made (which indicates policies that are actionable), work by Ruby, work by David (used to make annual reporting calendar).
● The work done in prior years needs to be updated and double-checked for accuracy. The efficacy of doing this is a Board discussion right now.
III. Policies
F28 Student Athletics, Clubs, and Activities
● F28 was placed on hold at the Aug 14 meeting so that the policy could go to Admin and the athletic directors for feedback.
● MS sent it out but did not receive any formal feedback.
● DS asked MS to put in another request for feedback.
● F28 is ON HOLD still awaiting feedback from Admin and Athletics.
F29 English Learners / Multilingual Learners
● F29 was placed on hold at the August 14 meeting so that Jen Course and Deb Coombs could be asked for feedback.
● No response has been received yet from Jen Course or Deb Coombs.
● MH sent them a nudge today and invited them to a future P&A meeting to discuss the policy.
● F29 is ON HOLD awaiting response from Jen Course and Deb Coombs.
F37 District Equity Policy
● After continuing the discussion of the term “initial proficiencies,” which caused some consternation at the last meeting, the committee accepted keeping the term, as no better alternative was found. Per TM, Sue at VSBA guessed it meant “baseline skills and knowledge.”
● The second sentence of the third bullet under definitions will be reworded to make it sound less negative: “Achieving equity may require an unequal distribution of resources and services.” � “Achieving equity requires a distribution of resources and services based on needs.”
● The committee recognizes that a commitment to equity is an ongoing goal and not something that is necessarily being achieved. The opening to the Implementation section will be reworded. “To realize this commitment to equity, the District will:” � “The District will strive to:”
● A discussion took place about whether the policy is so aspirational that it becomes meaningless. Thoughts/ideas/questions included:
o Who defines “quality”? And “culturally relevant”?
o Words have to be backed up by action.
o Could department heads do a curriculum audit? Would that just lead to tokenism?
o Annual rather than quarterly reports would be more reasonable.
o The policy sends a message about what we believe in. It embraces a vision and can be read as a statement of purpose.
● Before taking F37 to a first read, SK suggested asking the district-wide Social Justice League to take a look at it. MS suggested that it could also go to the weekly hub meeting and a full admin meeting.
● SK will take F37 to the Social Justice League and weekly hub, MS will take it to Admin.
● F37 is ON HOLD awaiting feedback.
Gender Freedom in Schools
● Updates from SK:
o The high school responded about transcripts. A student’s gender is not listed on
transcripts, so that is not something we need to worry about.
o SK and AH will meet to talk about VPA guidelines for sports and how to integrate
relevant wording into the policy.
● The question was raised about whether gender listed in student records can be changed
retroactively, i.e. after graduation. The policy addresses this issue in the last two
paragraphs of the Student Records section.
● Next steps: AH and SK will update footnotes, look more closely at the sports section and
cross reference VPA, and run by community stakeholders.
● Gender Freedom is ON HOLD until next meeting.
G4 Selection of Library Materials
Committee reviewed G4 and made the following edits and raised the following questions:
● Paragraph 2 reworded to read: “…diverse library collection that supports curricular goals and students in their personal research and their recreation reading. The goal is to sustain students’…”
● In the definition of Educational Technology, “to” was added before “solve problems” for clarity.
● In the definition of Diverse Library Collection, “traditionally marginalized” was changed to “historically marginalized” as a better word choice.
● A discussion took place regarding what “state and national standards” are being referenced in letter “d” under Access to Instructional Materials.
o The AASL standards will be added to the list of cross references at the end of the policy.
● The question was raised about why “at no cost to the student” was included in letter “d” and not elsewhere. This led to two questions that need to be looked into further:
o Is there a policy regarding lost/damaged items such as chrome books? What are the consequences for students? There does not seem to be a uniform standard across the schools.
o What about the consequences for a lost book from the library? (Is there a threat of not receiving a diploma?)
● Given that we are a merged district and that part of that involves sharing resources, TM raised the question of whether students have the right to access to any library in the district.
o Students have the right to be in any library but checking materials out is a different question.
o If a book is not in a particular school library, teachers will reach out to other libraries in the district.
● For letter “g”, add “in the school and district buildings” so that it reads: “provide broadband internet service for students and educators to access educational resources in the school and district buildings.” This clarifies that internet services is not being provided to homes.
● For letter “h”, change “written policies on…” to “procedures on…”
● For letter “j”, remove the “to” in “synthesize, and to present…”
● Add a period at the end of the last bullet (letter “d”) under Administrative Responsibilities.
● DS asked if libraries in the school district comply with this policy and have a full-time librarian for schools over 300 students. All district schools have a full-time librarian, although roles may differ.
● First paragraph under Use of School Library Materials and Resources—reword so it reads: “The library media specialist may consult with faculty, the student body, community members and organizations to develop library collections that are diverse and inclusive.”
● Eliminate final paragraph: “At the discretion of the building principal, students, staff, and family members of the District may be allowed to use the library materials and resources. However, such access shall not interfere with regular school use of those materials and resources.”
o All towns have a public library, and it is not the responsibility of the school library to provide library resources for, e.g., a student’s older sibling. TM brought up the community schools concept and put forth the hope that district schools can explore formal collaboration with public libraries.
● MH will send out edited G4 to SK. SK will to send the revised draft policy to school librarians and ask them to review it before 9/11/24 meeting. Librarians may provide feedback to SK and will be invited to attend the next meeting.
● G4 is ON HOLD until 9/11 awaiting feedback from school librarians.
Meeting adjourned at 4:03 pm.
Notes taken by Anna Monders (recorder)
Submitted by Anne Beekman (vice chair)
