Board previews new standalone anti‑bullying handbook; trustees ask for simplified parent/student guide

Dr. Ken Cooper presented the district’s new standalone anti‑bullying handbook on May 26, describing it as a consolidated, living operational roadmap that gathers reporting methods, investigation steps and progressive discipline into a single document. Cooper said the handbook outlines multiple confidential ways for students, families and staff to report incidents (Stop It app, written forms, verbal reports, GoGuardian) and calls for administrators to follow up within 24 hours or the next school day.

Trustees and parents praised the handbook’s scope but urged a shorter companion guide for families and students that lays out, in flowchart form, the exact steps to take and what actions parents and students should expect from staff. Concerns included consistency across school sites, explicit language about hate speech consequences and assurances that reports will be acted on. Several trustees proposed that staff produce a condensed parent/student guide and a student‑friendly booklet for assemblies.

The handbook was presented as an information item; no final adoption vote took place. The board asked staff to draft a condensed guidance document and return with a proposed distribution plan for classrooms and school websites.

Representative quotes • "This handbook is not meant to sit on the shelf... this will be a living operational road map" — Dr. Ken Cooper. • "As a parent... if my child is being bullied, I should be able to look at this and clearly see what the process is." — Trustee/commenter urging a flowchart.

Next steps: staff to prepare a condensed parent/student guide and consider an assembly or classroom posting to make the process visible to students and families.