DECATUR — An updated school policy proposed by the school board on Monday night will deal with current issues - many of which are problems that didn’t exist a few years ago - such as teacher use of social networking, video surveillance in the classroom and electronic cigarettes.
After reviewing the listof 24 possible changes to the school policy, school board members voted to present the changes to the Personnel Policy Committee as a proposal.
The board also voted to give superintendent Larry Ben the authority to renew all the teacher’s contracts once the policies have been set.
Ben recommended the changes to the school policy after studying the Arkansas School Board Association’s suggestions for model policies. Of the 24 proposed changes, many are phrases or sentences added to clarify existing policies. Others are entirely rewritten or completely new policies addressing problems that didn’t exist just a few years ago.
A few of the more notable changes include a completely new policy on teacher and staff use of social networking. The policy will extend the Arkansas Code of Ethics for teachers tocover social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Under the policy teachers and staff are encouraged to use social networking to raise student achievement andbetter communicate with parents. A good example of this might be a teacher blog or a networking site for teachers to collaborate.
Teachers and staff are discouraged from creating social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in which they encourage students to be followers. They will not be able to say anything online that they wouldn’t say in the classroom and will haveto be very mindful of their interactions with students online. They will also be banned from using social media while they are at school, unless it isduring a break, under the proposed policy.
Another proposed change is a rewritten section on video surveillance on school grounds. The proposed policy will allow video surveillance in the classroom in addition to school property, facilities and vehicles except for bathrooms and dressing rooms.
The policy was also expanded to include tracking devices to cover the new ZONAR system on the district’s buses.
School board president Ike Owens said he was surprised the policy didn’t include internet monitoring. Ben explained that the policy’s focus was to protect school property. The Arkansas Department ofEducation serves as the district’s internet provider and filters the websites that are available, said technology coordinator Garett Reeves. Students cannot access social networking sites from school, he said.
Both Ben and school board member Kevin Smith pointed out the school will be facing an increasing problem of students able to download objectionable material on their phones at school.
“As technology changes, the way kids do the things they shouldn’t do changes. But kids doing things they shouldn’t do never changes,” Ben said.
A policy allowing disabled people to bring service dogs and miniature horses was also added. The policy dictates that the person bringing the animal to school will be responsible for its behavior and that the animal must be housebroken.
A change in the policy on bullying and sexual harassment, for both staff and students, will include teasing or name calling based onthe belief or perception that an individual is not conforming to expected gender roles, regardless of whether the person self-identifies as a homosexual.
The change basically means that someone can’t say that it was okay to call another person names just because that person has admitted that they are a homosexual, Ben explained.
The school’s tobacco policy was updated to include electronic nicotine dispensing devices. The change was necessary because of recently invented electronic cigarettes that dispense nicotine but don’t actually contain tobacco, Ben explained.
The school board will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m., May 2, to give final approval to the policy changes, giving the Personnel Policy Committee two weeks to review the changes and make their own proposals.
School News, Pages 10 on 04/20/2011