BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com
Mahomet-Seymour School Board members Meghan Hennesy and Lori Larson will make up the board’s policy committee, which held its first open meeting Wednesday morning.
Led by Superintendent Lindsey Hall, the meeting began with an overview of recommended PRESS Updates. The full board will be made aware of the updates at the June 24 board meeting, and are scheduled to vote on the changes at the July 15 meeting.
Hennesy’s first suggestion was that Hall provide both former policy and suggestions so that board members and the public are able to see what the changes are. She also suggested that Hall provide the notes and legal references cited in an appendix so that board members and the public are able to cross-reference.
Larson said that she likes to see notes made in color so that they can easily follow what is added and stricken, too.
Hall said that the feedback was valuable and said she was open to whatever she could do.
Transportation
Going over a few legal reference changes, Hall then talked about the changes to board policy 4:110, which mandates that if adequate public transportation is not available to students or walking would constitute a serious safety hazard, including a pattern of criminal activity in the area, the school district would need to provide transportation for the student.
Hennesy wanted to understand if a law does not apply to a certain district, in this case Mahomet-Seymour, if the policy change is made in best practice. She wondered what tailoring could be done to condense the policies when they are not applicable to the Mahomet-Seymour district.
Hall said she would consult with IASB, but she believes the district would want their policies to reflect the law.
“Maybe it doesn’t apply now, but I don’t know about the future,” Hall said.
Larson said that as she thinks about the context of the community, she thinks about Prairieview Road during after-school drop-off.
She often sees children crossing from the east side of the street to the west after being dropped off by the bus.
While that situation is not what the law or policy is referring to, Larson said it’s important to think about as the district talks about transportation.
“My question is just some of these things come out and I understand legally if it is the law, we certainly want it in there, on some of these other things that are not as applicable to our district, would it behoove us to have a little bit more tailoring and specificity just so it feels like Mahomet-Seymour and not like a legal document?” Hennesy asked.
Section 6:15 of Board Policy should be updated to require the district to participate in accountability surveys, such as the ISBE’s 5 Essentials Survey, which collects feedback from students, parents and teachers, annually.
Hennesy wanted to know how the district moves from policy to procedure.
“What’s the next step for us to then say, we’re doing this annually, how are we going to record when we’re doing it, how we’re doing it, what do we do with the results, everything that is process-related after this policy is enacted,” she asked.
Hall said the timeframe for administering the survey is dictated by the state. She also said the district communicates with the parents about the survey, students take the survey during school and teachers are given time as well.
Hall said that the district just received preliminary results, and the state gives administrators time to make corrections, although she wasn’t sure what could be corrected. The results will be available to the public after the allotted correction time frame.
“Do we have a mechanism to get that feedback back to our district?” Hennesy asked.
Hall said the results would be public.
In her first year doing the survey at the Mahomet-Seymour School District, Hall said she is open to ways to get that information back to the community and that she will look at the results with her staff.
Hennesy asked if that would be presented to the board. Both parties settled on coming up with the plan.
“I don’t know how it’s been shared in the past,” Hall said. “I’m very interested in sharing it, seeing what’s going well and what are areas of need.”
Administering Medical Cannabis and Availability of Epi-Pens
District Policy 7:190 needs to be updated to reflect state legislative changes known as Ashley’s Law, which allows students to be given medical cannabis-infused products at school or on the school bus.
Current M-S policies prohibit the use of cannabis on school grounds, but should the district update the language in the policy to allow medicinal cannabis, it can be administered as needed.
Hall also suggests that the board update policy 7:27, which provides updates to access to medicinal cannabis and access to epi-pens.
Language for School District Supply of Undesignated Asthma Medication could be included in that. District nurse Nita Bachman is looking into that, and the board may need to revisit that subject.
“Within the medical cannabis language, there is an option for the board to approve a designated caregiver for this that is not the parent. My recommendation is to not to adopt that language so that it is only the parent (or guardian) that administers this,” Hall said.
“What that looks like is the parent coming, administering, then leaving with the medication.
“It doesn’t get left at school.”
Hennesy said she didn’t want the policy to be so narrow.
“A lot of times cannabis and medical marijuana are used for seizure control,” she said.
“A parent is at work; they are a doctor and in surgery, can’t make the time frame, I don’t want a policy that says they couldn’t designate someone else to come.
“I would like to think through that process just a little bit.”
Hennesy said it may be best to leave the policy as is, but develop procedures that allow for language that designates circumstances where a caregiver could substitute.
“I hear what you’re saying,” Hall replied.
Hennesy also wanted to know about where the epi-pens are stored, how many are on site.
“If someone could just point me to the procedures that we have. I would like to see that if as a policy committee, we could review those to make sure they have enough detail so that parents and the board understands as we make changes to these policies, what does that look like in terms of making sure that the policy can be enforced?”
“Good point,” Hall said.
Larson said that in schools she’s been in across the state, things like epi-pens have been stored in a secure box with signage pointing towards them.
Hennesy also thinks it’s important to have discussions with students and faculty to have an understanding of what it looks like when a person is in distress and may need medication, like an epi-pen.
Larson agreed.
Although the implementation of Ashley’s Law is optional, the Mahomet-Seymour School board heard from the district’s attorney on May 20 in support of adopting the measure.
Hall said since discussing Ashley’s Law, updates have been made, and the board will need to revisit it.
Hennesy wanted to know how the district moves from having a policy for epi pens, for example, to the procedure and the process of administering.
“Is this in every single school? What happens when someone uses one? Are they single-use containers (inhalers)? How do we dispose of it? For me, this policy has a whole host of procedural things that go underneath it, and that’s the piece that I haven’t seen.”
“It’s one thing to say we’ve got this policy, and then when you put the policy out for the district to see, without the procedure I think there are some gaping holes and assumptions that could be made, especially when it’s life-saving medicine.”
Hall said that part of that is in the administrative procedure project. But the district has been having these conversations, and the district is developing administrative procedures that reflect the policy.
Targeted School Violence Prevention Program
The only PRESS update that Hall did not recommend was a brand new policy, “Targeted School Violence Prevention Program” (policy 4:190) because the district has systems and plans in place, a productive and positive working relationship with first responders, a crisis plan and an assessment team.
“It’s a great policy, but it requires a great deal of change and transition to very specific guidelines that are referenced in the policy,” she said.
“I think that what we have is working very well.”
Hall said that if the board were to adopt policy 4:190, there would be about 40 pages of administrative procedure that would need to be changed with it.
Hennesy reiterated her need to see the previous policy in order to know to form an educated opinion.
“If we can do that, I think that would be helpful for me,” Hennesy said.
Hall agreed.
Administrative Procedures Project
Hall also updated the committee on the development of the administrative procedures that are going on in the background.
Student and staff handbooks do regulate some procedures, but coming from Morton that has an administrative procedure manual, Hall decided to begin the process with the district’s administrators.
The district is working with IASB to develop the manual. IASB provides a draft manual that Hall, Director of Curriculum Nicole Rummel, Director of Special Education Christine Northrup and Chief Financial Officer Trent Nuxoll go through and choose what procedures reflect what Mahomet-Seymour does or wants to do.
The manual is not public, although some parts show up in other district manuals. Hall said some parts of the procedures are not available for security reasons.
As board policy gets updated, the administrative procedures will be reviewed to make sure they are aligned.
According to Hall, the district paid IASB around $7,000 for its services. Hall said the team is about 80- to 90-percent done with the project.
Hennesy wanted to know if the board would be able to review the document seeing as their policies should be reflected in procedures.
Hall said, “The board can look at it. It’s not for board use seeing as it’s day-to-day operations of the district. So we can talk about how that best looks.”
“Except that the policy is what dictates the procedure,” Hennesy said. “Procedure is only something that you can enact based on the policy. You can’t separate one without the other. That gives you the detail and how-to.”
“I would like the opportunity for the board to just double check with the policies and that we have that turn-key approach that we’re hoping for.”
Hall clarified that its not a board approval item.
Hennesy wanted to know the next steps of the committee. Hall said the policy committee usually meets three times a year when PRESS updates are released. Hall also said that she is open to suggestions on future meetings.
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