The Board of Education policy committee voted to advance changes that separate family engagement and system partnerships into distinct policies. Staff said Policy 4-13 will be retitled 'Parent, Family and Community Engagement' and will emphasize definitions, two-way communication expectations and the superintendent's role in creating implementing regulations. The new Policy 4-12, 'Partnerships,' will set expectations for formal system partners (government agencies, nonprofits and businesses), require a regulation to define thresholds for formal agreements and call for annual reporting to the board.

Members asked for practical clarifications: how chaperones and volunteers are vetted, whether the partnership landing page should surface strategic-plan alignment (staff suggested a cover-page link rather than embedding the strategic-goal text in the policy), and whether schools must document informal partnerships in a concise way so families can discover who is interacting with students. Staff described existing practices: volunteers who work regularly are fingerprinted; visitors pass through the Raptor check-in system, and schools are asked to update annual partnership lists so they appear in the yearly partnership booklet and report.

The committee supported drafting a brief registration/one-sheet for potential partners and directed staff to include a cross-reference to board committees and the partnership report. Both measures were advanced to the full board for a first reading by unanimous votes.