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Parent tells board code-of-conduct changes must be implemented after being blocked from school meeting
Summary
At a March 11 public hearing required under policy 1400, a parent representative said Rochester City School District staff refused her presence at a school meeting and urged the board to ensure code of conduct revisions are implemented and communicated to families.
Good evening. I am Commissioner Griffin, chair of the policy committee for the Rochester Board of Education. It is now 05:33PM on Tuesday, 03/11/2025. This is the code of conduct public hearing. The Rochester Board of Education's code of conduct policy 1,400 in educational law and regulation requires the board to conduct at least 1 public hearing before the board can vote on any revisions to the policy.
Rebecca Harrington, a parent representative on the Special Education Parent Advisory Council and a member of the Code of Conduct Committee, told the board she accompanied another parent to a meeting with a school principal after that parent reported an urgent classroom issue. "The next morning, we both arrived for the meeting, and we're told that I was not allowed in the meeting," Harrington said. She said she cited the code of conduct and the parent engagement policy and was told the meeting would be canceled if she attended.
Harrington said the incident left the family feeling they had "no levers to pull" when rights written in the district code of conduct were ignored. "Parents and students do not have any levers to pull when our rights are violated," she said. She urged the board and district administration to approve the Code of Conduct Committee's recommendations and to ensure the policy is "implemented, shared, and followed in a meaningful way" so parents and students can use it to engage with schools.
Why it matters: The hearing met a procedural requirement in policy 1400 and is the public forum for the community to comment before the board votes on any policy revisions. Harrington framed her remarks as an implementation problem: she said the code, which committee members and board members have repeatedly approved, is not reaching school staff or being followed at the school level.
District officials present confirmed the public materials for the proposed changes are posted on BoardDocs and the district public hearings webpage. The hearing was limited to one speaker and three minutes of public comment as announced at the start of the session. The board did not take a vote on the Code of Conduct at this hearing; the hearing record will be part of the record used when the board later considers revisions.
The public hearing concluded without additional speakers. The board thanked the speaker and closed the session.
