Policy committee approves forwarding student-discipline changes to full board to align bullying language

The district's policy committee voted Tuesday to forward revisions to policy 5114, the student-discipline policy, to the full school board and to remove a set of related forms and notices, saying the edits are intended to align the policy's definition of bullying with language in the district's new school climate policy, 5131.911. Deb Klakowski, board member and policy chair, called the vote during the committee's 5:32 p.m. virtual meeting.

The committee moved to approve the policy changes so they could be presented to the board at its next meeting. "The reason for the policy change is that the definition of bullying has been changed," Marco Gaylord, director of facilities, safety, and security, told the committee. Gaylord said the wording in 5114 needs to match the wording now in policy 5131.911 and that the form referenced in the climate policy appears in the district regulations.

The committee also voted to delete several documents it said are no longer required because the new climate policy incorporates them. Those items discussed for deletion included the annual bullying notice (Appendix A), several bullying-behavior forms identified as items 3 through 6 in the packet, bullying letters to parents, and a guide for investigating bullying behavior. "Those forms and notices are no longer needed," Gaylord said.

Why it matters: the committee said the edits are a procedural alignment between the student-discipline policy and the new school-climate policy, consolidating language and removing duplicate or superseded forms from the discipline policy packet.

What happened at the meeting: Elizabeth Crooks, board member, moved to approve the change to policy 5114 to bring it to the full board; Deb Klakowski seconded the motion, and the committee approved the measure by voice vote. Crooks moved separately to delete the listed forms and notices; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.

Discussion and next steps: Committee members did not record substantive opposition during the discussion on the record. Committee members asked staff to present the approved revisions to the full board at the next board meeting, which staff said was likely to be Sept. 29, pending final confirmation after the full-board meeting that evening. Committee members were invited to send any suggested language edits or questions to staff before that meeting.

Meeting details: the changes discussed were limited to wording alignment and removal of forms; no new disciplinary procedures, sanctions, or penalties were adopted at the committee meeting. The committee described the action as a legislative alignment and streamlining, and staff said the new incident-report form is found in the district regulations associated with policy 5131.911.