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Board discusses several policy updates; rental‑use liability waiver clarified for future action
Summary
Trustees reviewed and queued multiple policy items June 10, including AI acceptable‑use and academic‑honesty policies and updates to Title I compliance and searches; the rental‑use policy (Policy 9‑10) was pulled from consent for additional language clarifying when the $1 million insurance requirement can be waived.
At its June 10 meeting the Blaine County School District No. 61 board reviewed and advanced several policy items. Trustees approved many consent items but pulled Policy 9‑10 (rental use of school facilities) for separate discussion and follow-up.
Board legal counsel and staff introduced a new draft Policy 9‑43 (AI tools acceptable use) intended as a companion to the district’s acceptable‑use policy (9‑42). Staff also presented a proposed academic‑honesty policy (5‑56) that explicitly addresses improper use of AI tools in student work. District staff said both policies were reviewed by librarians, principals and IT staff and will be incorporated through the district’s policy process.
Trustees discussed updates to a suite of policies addressing federal Title I compliance—policy 8‑90 (Title I A supplement/not supplant) and policy 8‑92 (equivalence in instructional staff and materials)—which staff said consolidate federal requirements (including post‑ESSA guidance) into single policy references for audit and compliance purposes.
Policy 9‑10 (Rental use of school facilities) drew specific trustee concern over the $1,000,000 commercial‑liability certificate requirement for non‑BCSD groups and the policy language for waiving that requirement. A trustee asked whether routine meeting spaces (low‑risk uses) should be exempt on a risk basis rather than by a simple routine‑meeting label. Staff replied the district currently may waive the requirement “at the discretion of the district” for routine meetings but agreed to return with clearer language that ties waivers to a documented risk assessment and specific use categories.
The board did not take final action on Policy 9‑10; trustees moved it to the action agenda, discussed waiver language and directed staff to return with revised text for formal action at a future meeting.
Other updates presented for information and review included modest grammatical and cross‑reference updates to certified‑employee evaluation policy (4‑43) to remove an unnecessary 21‑day response limit; updates to searches by school officials (5‑42) adding contraband examples (tobacco, vapes, alcohol, illegal drugs) and language to attempt parent notification after searches; and a minor update to policy language on certified‑employee evaluations to clarify response opportunities following negotiations.
No policy adoptions in this block were finalized at this meeting except those on the consent agenda (approved earlier); staff will return with the revised rental‑use language and other finalized policy edits as required.
