Policy committee advances five district policies to full board for June approval

At a May 20 meeting of the Union County Public Schools Policy Committee, members voted to forward five policies to the full school board for approval at the June meeting.

Staff presented the policies and said, “There’s been no stakeholder input since that time, and staff would request that this policy go for approval at the June meeting,” referring to the draft changes under review.

The policies advanced were: a school safety policy (Policy 1‑27), companion complaint procedures covering racism, discrimination, harassment and bullying for employees and students, an attendance policy (Policy 4‑01), a policy on extracurricular activities and interscholastic athletics (Policy 5‑04), and a student promotion and accountability policy (Policy 5‑12). Staff said each item had been reviewed by the committee in April and by the full board in May and that no new stakeholder input had been received since those reviews.

Staff described the attendance and student promotion changes as tied to a revision in State Board of Education policy that removed certain ‘‘failure’’ attendance options and made attendance recovery provisions irrelevant; the presenter said the changes affect how attendance recovery grades are calculated. On extracurriculars, staff said revisions were intended to address new name, image and likeness (NIL) agreements and eligibility questions when parents falsify addresses.

Committee members asked no substantive questions during the presentation and moved to send the group of policies to the full board. The motion passed on a voice vote recorded as “Aye.” No roll call tally was provided in the transcript.

The committee scheduled the district’s next meeting for June 17 at 8:00 a.m.