District presents handbook updates for all three school levels; committee to collect questions

Administrators from Stoughton High School, O'Donnell Middle School and the district's elementary schools presented proposed updates to their school handbooks, describing modest wording changes and a handful of substantive additions that district leaders said are intended to clarify practice and align secondary schools (grades 6–12).

Superintendent Dr. Joe Baietta told the committee that the presentations are informational and that any handbook change that conflicts with an existing school committee policy would be brought back for committee action. Committee members asked administrators to collect questions by email and said Dr. Baietta would circulate responses and supporting documentation ahead of the next meeting.

At the high school, Miss Miller said changes include revised language on physical examination intervals (physicals upon entry to a school and every three to four years thereafter for general health screening, with annual physicals remaining required for athletes), a prohibition on dismissing medically unwell students to ride-share services from the nurse's office unless a caregiver is present, and a new appeals process for students who have failed two classes so they can request eligibility for extracurriculars while meeting academic conditions. The high school also proposed two additional athletic awards and softer, more inclusive language on tardiness.

At O'Donnell Middle School, the principal described a piloted tardy program that uses an after-school "buyback" or supervised time to make up lost learning and a progressive threshold across trimesters; a return to lockers with written accommodations for students who need alternative arrangements; tightened language on promotion and retention that incorporates unexcused absences into consideration; a clarified code of conduct with schoolwide expectations (respect, responsibility, readiness); the addition of "structured day" and "structured day plus" as restorative/behavioral responses to repeated in-school behavior issues; and an expansion of cheating/plagiarism language to address artificial intelligence tools.

At the elementary level, administrators reported only minor edits: updates to the table of contents, calendar dates, broader dismissal-notification language (allowing non-written communications), updated contact lists and the addition of administrative names on coordinator lists. The presentation noted that the elementary handbooks reflect the same transportation policies and other district-level rules already approved by the committee.

Committee members asked for clarification on implementation details for structured-day interventions, parent notification processes, and the appeals and eligibility processes; building administrators asked that committee members submit detailed questions by email so principals can provide considered responses. Dr. Baietta said he will collect staff answers and distribute them before the committee's next meeting so members can vote if needed on any item that requires formal committee action.