At the business meeting, district staff presented a package of proposed policy and rule changes affecting hardship accommodations, staff transfer rules and interim-report language.

Doctor Dickey delivered a first reading of policy IKAB (report cards), proposing two edits to align the written policy with current practice: replace the term “midterm” with “interim” throughout and clarify that interim reports are not issued for pre-K, kindergarten and first grade but are provided for second grade and up. No vote was taken on IKAB; the item was presented for first reading. (Doctor Dickey)

A separate policy presentation proposed narrowing childcare-hardship approvals to kindergarten through fifth grade and steering childcare/transportation concerns for grades 6–12 toward the district’s busing processes. Staff said they had removed “physical, psychological and psychiatric” categories as automatic hardship grounds because the district already provides services via partners (Care Solace, Thrive Family Services and Catawba Mental Health) and because a designee-based extenuating-circumstances clause remains for truly extraordinary cases.

The hardship draft also added explicit rule language about employee accommodations: resident employees may hardship to the school where they work or to a school in that employer’s feeder pattern; out-of-district employees who work in the district may request a hardship tied to their primary reporting location. Staff said denials may consider behavioral and attendance records (incident reports, truancy) rather than using an academic-performance standard. (Policy presenter)

Staff-transfer rules (policy GCK-related rule language) were returned for board review; staff emphasized the rule language additions are not ordered or weighted but are intended to create a holistic reassignment process when district educators must be reassigned to other schools.

Next steps: The superintendent asked that these policy and rule changes be placed on the agenda for second reading and potential adoption at the September business meeting. No formal vote to adopt policy changes occurred at this meeting; items were presented for board review and scheduled for a future vote.

Quotes from the meeting

“I bring tonight for you a first reading of a policy…which is policy IKAB in regard to report cards, to make it align with our practice,” Doctor Dickey said.

“We do still have the provision within policy that allows the designee of the superintendent through extenuating circumstances to evaluate a hardship,” the policy presenter said, describing the retained exception for extraordinary cases.

Ending

Staff asked board members to provide feedback before the scheduled second readings in September. The board did not adopt new policy language at this meeting; the changes were presented for review and to be returned for a second reading.