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Board opens first reading of student handbook; attendance exemptions, threat assessment and cell‑phone rules draw questions
Summary
During the first reading of the student handbook, board members pushed to add an 'exempt' attendance category, clarify how chronic absenteeism is calculated across semesters (and for special education), and align discipline consequences with the district's threat assessment plan.
Board members conducted a detailed first reading of the student handbook and raised several substantive concerns. One parent-modeling speaker asked the board to add the word 'exempt' to attendance categories to distinguish medical or other approved absences from excused or unexcused absences: 'If my child has, smallpox, just picks up another year... he obviously will not be in school and with the doctors know that absence would be exempt.'
Members discussed how attendance reporting for chronic absenteeism runs on a full calendar year rather than restarting each semester, and cautioned about implications for special education students. The handbook's behavioral matrix also prompted debate: board members suggested relying more on the threat assessment committee to set consequences rather than embedding a fixed list of punishments, with one member saying 'the consequence is supposed to be determined by the threat assessment committee.' Staff agreed to convene the safety committee and return with clarified language and recommended handbook edits.
