Maynard School Committee approves 2024–25 student handbooks with targeted edits

The Maynard School Committee voted to approve the 2024–25 student handbooks for the high school, Green Meadow and Fowler after a series of edits aimed at clarifying discipline, attendance and meal information.

Chair opened the special remote meeting under the state’s 2023 remote‑meeting law and said the committee would take up three handbooks. Principal Liz York summarized substantive updates to the high school handbook, saying “the section on CRA has been completely rewritten” to front‑load interventions and treat court referral as a last resort. Members praised the rewrite as more collaborative.

The committee authorized Liz York to add information about the district’s universal meal coverage for 2024–25 to the high school handbook. Several members asked that the same language be included, age‑appropriately, in the Fowler and Green Meadow handbooks so families moving between schools see consistent guidance.

Committee discussion across all three handbooks focused on alignment and clarity: standardizing policy numbering and naming conventions, clarifying the difference between in‑school and out‑of‑school suspensions and ensuring parents receive notice, adding McKinney‑Vento registration language for homeless and foster students, and modernizing or removing outdated health language. Hillary Griffiths and others pressed to remove a dated section referencing students with HIV and to replace it with current guidance the school nurse reviewed.

On discipline, Colleen Andra and other members pushed for consistent notice practices; committee members agreed to revise handbook language so parents receive written or oral notice for both in‑school and out‑of‑school suspensions and to clarify when a written decision or hearing would follow.

Members also discussed electronics and cell‑phone expectations (students may carry devices but should keep them in backpacks during instructional time), athletic eligibility language and a proposed approach to avoid denying participation for families unable to pay fees. Karen Linquist, who led the Green Meadow review, said she would collect staff and school‑council input for a more user‑friendly document.

Motions to approve each handbook passed on roll‑call votes recorded during the meeting; members present voted in the affirmative after the chair offered the requested editorial and substantive changes. Each approval authorized school staff to implement the edits and to circulate final versions to the committee and families.

What’s next: the committee directed staff to implement the agreed edits, update links and policy citations, and return any remaining substantive changes through the policy subcommittee for final review before publication.