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Board reviews attendance, grading and cellphone policy changes; readings set for July
Summary
The Johnson County Board reviewed policy committee recommendations on attendance (excuse notes/tardies), grading scales, and a cell-phone ban during instructional time required by state law; the items were placed for reading in July.
The Johnson County Board of Education discussed proposed policy changes on attendance, grading and use of personal electronic devices and scheduled a formal reading of the policies for its July meeting.
District staff presented several committee recommendations. Changes to the attendance policy would (1) allow parents to submit up to three written notes for excused absences, (2) treat dismissal as one excused absence for target calculations, and (3) clarify that principals may enforce existing discretion for principal-excused absences in special circumstances. Staff also proposed that written excuses must be original signatures from parents (copies or reproductions would not be accepted) after administrators reported instances of altered or forged excuses.
Board members engaged in an extended discussion about tardies and early dismissals: whether a policy should count minutes rather than full-day absences, how to define a threshold for “half-day” versus a single tardy, and the administrative burden of tracking minute-level attendance. Staff noted the current approach counts multiple tardies toward unexcused absence thresholds (five tardies typically equal one unexcused absence) and that the district sends an informational letter at three tardies and a principal-notification letter at five. Staff warned that changing the threshold could create opportunities for abuse and add tracking work for personnel.
On grading, the board discussed aligning the K–8 grading scale with the state’s newly adopted 9–12 scale; staff said the change resulted from principals’ and teachers’ requests and from the state board’s choice last year to adopt the 9–12 scale. The change would make the district’s K–12 grading scale consistent across grade bands.
Staff also presented a required policy on personal communication devices, citing state law (Senate Bill 897 and House Bill 932) that requires school boards to adopt a policy restricting phone use during instructional time. The district’s draft would prohibit phones during instructional periods; at the high school level, phones could be allowed in passing times and the cafeteria for the coming year with administrators monitoring for abuse and reserving the right to restrict them further.
These policies were presented for reading; formal approval is scheduled at the July meeting. The discussion included multiple staff and board participants, with detailed questions about implementation and enforcement; no formal policy votes were taken at the June meeting.
