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Munster board approves student handbooks and authorizes superintendent to hire ahead of school year
Summary
The board unanimously approved a slate of student handbooks for 2026–27, discussed future handbook alignment and AI guidance, and authorized the superintendent to hire staff before the 2026–27 school year, noting a state law change that removed a prior 30-day contract hold.
The School Town of Munster Board of Trustees unanimously approved multiple student handbooks and granted the superintendent authority to hire staff prior to the 2026–27 school year.
The consent and action votes included approval of the Munster High School student handbook (2026–27), the Student Athlete and Parent Athletic Handbook (2026–27), the Wilbur Wright Middle School handbook (2026–27), the Elementary Student Handbook (2026–27) — which had a typographical phone-number correction already incorporated — and the Mini Mustang handbook (2026–27). Each motion carried on voice votes recorded as 5–0.
Trustee Cinder urged future work toward consistent district-wide handbook formatting and policy alignment, including a suggested AI framework to build students’ digital literacy rather than impose a flat ban. "Examples like creating an AI framework for our students that we are building on their digital literacy throughout their education as opposed to... prohibiting them," Cinder said. Trustees said those ideas would be part of longer-term policy work.
The board also approved authorization allowing the superintendent to hire staff before the school year begins, a standard summer practice that the board said is increasingly important because a recent state law change eliminated a 30-day contract-hold provision. "That law has been vacated and removed, deleted," a trustee said, referring to the state change and the district’s need to act quickly when vacancies arise.
All relevant handbook approvals were made with minor corrections noted in the meeting, and administrators said they would return with broader alignment proposals in future discussions.
