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Board approves APAC concurrence and completes policy cleanup
Summary
The board approved the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee annual concurrence by roll call and voted to adopt first readings and rescind outdated policies, aligning district policy with state requirements and clarifying items such as SRO definitions and cultural exemptions.
The Bemidji Public School District board voted to concur with the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee’s annual compliance overview and approved several policy updates and rescissions.
Anna Hammond presented the APAC annual compliance overview and said the committee issued a vote of concurrence that the district is meeting the needs of American Indian students. The board introduced and seconded the APAC resolution and approved it by roll call (Wall, Long Bokner, Aus, Manaki and Hogan all voted ‘yes’).
Superintendent Olsen reviewed multiple policy updates being advanced via a first-reading process: employee-student relationships (boundary rules), non-resident enrollment protections, alignment of academic eligibility with the Minnesota State High School League standard, field-trip personal-vehicle use restrictions, locker/desk search procedures with reasonable-suspicion standards, definitions around school resource officers, expansions to 504 protections, emergency-closing policy changes to include food-service employees, and a tobacco-free policy exemption for American Indian cultural traditions in alignment with state statute.
The board approved first readings and also approved rescinding duplicate and outdated policies to streamline the policy manual; motions carried by voice votes. The transcript does not record detailed amendment language; board members indicated the rescinds are housekeeping items and that some policy changes were to align local rules with state statute.
