Board previews policy items: 4-day week application timing, student data security and instructional-materials procedures

Superintendent Justin told the board that state rule changes under a new "Chapter 2" could change the application deadline for alternative-schedule renewals and asked trustees to allow staff to apply for a five-year alternative schedule (a four-day week) at Monday's regular meeting.

"We were operating under the old, chapter 22 rules, which meant that we needed to have our renewal request in by May 1," Justin said. He explained that proposed new rules are on the governor’s desk and, if signed, would move the due date to April 1; the governor had until April 8 to sign on a timeline discussed during the meeting. Justin said staff plan to ask the board on Monday to permit them to apply for a five-year alternative schedule even though he likely would not have a final calendar for 2025–26 ready by then.

Policy work and procedural items were also discussed. Trustees were asked to review attachments to a student data-security policy after staff received an email from PowerSchool notifying the district that certain user data had been involved; the board was told eligible families would be offered two years of credit monitoring and credit freeze services through a vendor named in the notice.

A separate personnel/policy item involved a request under district policy IHCD (post-secondary credit/acceptance) where a student’s course prerequisites were not offered by the district; staff asked the board to consider allowing a case-by-case credit acceptance for a student who is on a specific post-secondary plan. Justin said the policy in question does not include a superintendent-approval clause and that submitting the case to the board was appropriate.

Several instructional-materials and challenge-related procedures were placed on the calendar for first reading at the regular meeting. The board agreed to move IGDB and IJJA (instructional materials review/challenge) to Monday for first reading and asked staff to bring procedural forms so stakeholders could see how challenges would be submitted and vetted. Trustees also moved staffing-formula and coaching-staffing policies toward action on Monday after multi-stakeholder conversations.

A brief mention of a PowerSchool-related data issue prompted a reminder that the student data security policy and its attachments should be reviewed before Monday’s meeting. "I got an email from PowerSchool... which would be, two years for anybody involved, 2 years of credit monitoring, and 2 years of credit freezing," one trustee said while referencing the notice.

The committee recessed at the end of the meeting for an executive session on personnel and legal matters after a motion to do so was made and seconded and approved by voice vote. The CAL meeting did not adopt new policy changes during the session; staff will present the policy proposals and the alternative-schedule application for board action at the regular meeting.