Committee advances employee handbooks to full board while awaiting Act 88/89 guidance

The committee advanced draft employee handbook changes to the full Waunakee Community School District board for June consideration while staff said the district is still awaiting detailed policy language and training materials related to Acts 88 and 89.

Staff told the committee the handbooks have been updated in many places but that specific language for compliance with Act 88 and Act 89 is not yet available from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). "Both, you know, 1 is, part of it would be coming from the WASB in terms of, policy language, suggested policy language. Part of it is also potentially coming from the DPI, for training materials and, and language," the staff member said.

Why it matters: Act 89 requires specific staff training prior to Sept. 1, and Act 88 contains provisions the district said will affect several handbook sections. Staff said they have embedded many protections in acceptable‑use policies and believe the district is "ahead of the game," but that the statutes explicitly call for stand‑alone policy language that the district will insert when formal guidance is received.

Action and next steps: a committee member moved to advance the draft handbooks as explained; the motion was seconded and the committee voted in favor. Staff asked that, if guidance arrives before the June full board meeting, they will insert the language and present the updated handbooks; if not, the board will approve the handbooks in June with the commitment to revisit them over the summer to ensure compliance and complete required staff training.

The presenter noted the committee limited the handbook changes largely to financial and administrative updates tied to prior CPI negotiations and that staff plan to roll certain handbook numerical values forward annually by the prior year's negotiated CPI.