SRSD Policy/Personnel Sub Committee Meeting 9-16-26

Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.

Recording

All right. Uh, good evening. I would
like to, uh, call to order the policy
and personnel subcommittee. Uh, this
evening we have, uh, myself, Jeremiah
Nol, we have Ken Hamilton here, we have
Dr. H. Hot. Hotton, and Heather Ingram
has been excused from this meeting.
Let's go ahead and kick off with the
pledge of allegiance. The flag is
sitting right out there, gentlemen.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
>> Thank you, John.
All right,
let's take a quick look at the meeting
minutes from Wednesday, August 19th.
Do I have a motion on the minutes?
>> I'll make a motion to
accept the minutes from the What was the
date?
>> Wednesday, August 19th
>> to accept the meeting minutes from there
was a second.
>> It was a second. September 2nd.
>> I feel like that too, but this says
>> Oh, no, no, no. That's correct.
>> August 19.
>> It was because We didn't meet.
>> Yeah,
>> we didn't meet last week. Uh, last board
meeting.
>> Yeah, it's correct.
>> August 19th.
>> Just rapid fire.
>> Amen. My motion to accept the meeting
minutes from August 19th.
>> Copy that. I will second. Any
discussion?
There being no discussion, all those in
favor.
All right.
Thank you. Let's go ahead and get back
to the agenda. Okay. So, we have three
policies on the docket uh tonight. Um
Dr. Hen, would you like to kick this off
with policy DJ, the bidding requirements
for purchase orders?
>> Uh this policy had uh originated for
review from the facilities and finance
committee. Um there were a couple
incidents in purchasing that uh they
felt the district needed to clean up. Um
there was also some gaps in the existing
policy too. Um that I believe it's
between
uh 10,000 and 25,000. There's really not
any direction on what we're supposed to
be doing. And so um trying to tighten
that language up. And also too, um the
facilities director was uh finding
challenges in getting bids of things
below 10,000
uh because it just that's your local
contractor window and trying to get more
local business uh with the school
district. It was it was becoming
increasingly problematic
um to get things uh done that way. So
they requested a revision of this policy
and so tried my best to uh capture what
their thoughts were on the uh updated
version. I did it atalicize what the
changes were between the two policies.
>> So first question we have purchases
below 20,000 and then purchases from 10
to 19. Should they should should the
first paragraph be below 10,000? Yeah, I
would say
correction there.
And then bridges below 10 from 10 to 20
and 20 to 50, right?
>> Yeah. Actually, I'd probably flip-flop
those two paragraphs be my suggestion.
Okay.
>> Just to go sort of order.
>> Yeah.
The other correction was aggregating
or not correction but the other change
was
something about aggregating purchases.
>> Yep.
>> Yeah. Because that was part of the
concern from the committee.
that was purchasing the same thing five
times. So, it comes in as the threshold.
>> Yeah. And just for the uh public's
awareness, this policy was last revised
uh September of 2024. So, we're
revisiting this policy two years later.
Yep. And I do know we are in a uh we're
in an environment where the 10,000 and
below is definitely challenging
>> um especially when we're trying to move
responsibly
fiscally responsible but also we need to
get certain work done.
>> Yep.
>> Yep. Okay.
And I don't have any questions on this.
Do you have any other questions or
clarifications?
>> No, just that one.
>> No. Okay. Okay. Um I will make a motion
to move forward uh policy DJ
as proposed.
>> Second.
>> Any further discussion?
All those in favor?
Unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Policy DJ.
Moving forward.
Now on to policy GB CD, background
investigation and criminal history
check.
You want to give us a little bit of uh
>> Yeah. So this has been something um I've
gotten a lot of questions um about uh
through the end of the since the
beginning of the school year. Um the
policy as writerly does not really
include um contracted service employees
specifically like special ed. Um it does
look at things like cafeteria and school
bus, but uh um with the number of
contracted employees we have uh in
special ed right now that um there was a
gap here in terms of that. Um there was
also um just some gaps in terms of how
um the district responded to third-party
background checks and trying to um sort
of parse through that. And I was
bringing this forward just because I was
looking for more direction on how to um
administer this to the district because
I think this is a critical thing. um for
us. Um the other thing that I was
unaware of when I wrote the policy um
was the three-year um requirement that
the uh board I believe had voted in at
some point during the last school year
into this policy, which I do not believe
is actually in either the draft version
or the current version. Um,
so I was trying to make sure we sort of
got all those things um, covered in here
and trying to sort of tighten this up
um, a lot.
I think the other thing the board will
have to tackle is if you're going to
require all the employees to redo a
background check every three years, um,
there could be a financial uh, impact on
that.
We had discussed that last time on
initial employment the perspective.
>> Yeah. Initial employment they're paying.
Yeah.
>> The district will pay subsequent.
>> Okay. Good.
>> And it would be kind of like a rolling
three years. Not everyone's going to be
in the same year.
>> Yeah. My suggestion would be you would
do it on their certification cycle
because eventually the department of
education will be doing the exact same
thing.
>> Yeah. So there not it's not a one big
hit every three years. It's
>> right.
>> Yeah. It's, you know, this year you
might have 40 people reertifying. Next
year you might have 55, but then the
final year might have 30.
>> Yep. That is something the board.
>> And the assumption of that uh fiscal
expenditure is far outweighed uh by the
risk of not doing it.
>> Yeah. You're looking at roughly $47 per
check. So it's not it's the cost for a
lawyer involvement far exceeds that.
>> Yep. Yep. So, do we um so actually as a
point of order, Ken, um being the newest
one to this committee, the subcommittee
um were we supposed to move that first
one forward for first read? What's the
what are we doing out of this committee?
So, we're doing first read.
>> Yep.
>> Yeah. To and then sorry to the broader
board next meeting
>> for the second read.
>> Yep.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> Because after first read if we get
feedback
>> then we come back in and
>> Yeah. like in this in this DJ you had
that one where we're going to swap the
paragraph but there were no other
substant changes. So I felt comfortable
that the committee's wish was to move
forward. Now if you took a policy said I
want
>> you change these five paragraphs then
that would be something that you would
say
>> we're going to table this bring it back
next time and take another look at
>> same thing with the broader board. It
doesn't automatically go to second read.
If the broader board wants substantial
changes it'll go back to first read.
And so for this one here, we do have
changes that we want to see. We want to
see the three-year,
the reoccurring three-year put in here.
Um,
that's the biggest one.
>> And you did change the language.
language is changed from superintendent
or designate may wave background
investigation and instead rely on
suitable assurances to the district
shall not rely upon
>> so the district will do
>> some experiences have guided my thoughts
and feelings on this
>> I mean I don't I don't object to it but
is it going to well it doesn't matter
just thinking my own experience
like if my company's done it,
it's supplied to
>> my new client, which happens every time.
That seems to be suitable. Can somebody
make that argument? Because my feeling
is
>> if they provide a copy of a recent, you
know,
>> background check and it's from a
reputable like state police, the same
one we use, is that acceptable?
I think the other side of that coin
would be what's our normal policy if
they were a district employee and making
sure we're following
>> our consistent policy. That that would
be where I'd rather be just then. So
we'll do that for all
like the bus drivers contractors because
they so every every contractor would
have to have
>> and if
>> which I believe is the case but uh it's
obviously something I've been so focused
in on some of the other contract
employees
>> and what's their renewal what would
their renewal cycle be like do we sign a
contract with the bus company yearly?
Uh, it's usually a multi-year. I'm not
sure what
>> I just use that example. You hire
somebody to paint like
>> it's generally like three years,
>> but every time Ken Hamilton comes back,
does we have to redo Ken Hamilton or
>> even if it's every six months or
whatever?
>> I I think sort of going back to Jeremy's
point earlier, the cost of not doing
that and this is what the policy can put
the stake in the ground and say this is
what we expect.
>> Okay. Y ultimately what you guys are
comfortable with.
>> I just don't want it to be we changed
something for this person and not that
person.
>> Y
>> um you know sort of the idea of just
consistency and everything being
>> well that's kind of the essence of my
question. We're telling we're saying
employees every three years. Are we
saying Ken Hamilton the contractor every
three years or Ken Hamilton the
contractor every time?
>> I don't think it's the worst thing.
Yeah.
I'm asking should K can Hamilton be more
frequent or could he be more frequent?
>> You could I mean in a lot of cases the
contractors tend to turn over at
intervals. So I think it's less of a
>> um a cost. I think it's more of a
>> a bus driver.
>> Ken was here this year and then Jeremiah
replaced him the next year.
>> We'll get one on Jeremiah. But I'm a bus
driver and I've been with the bus
company for 10 years.
I'll get renewed every three years.
>> Yeah. I don't Yeah. And they have to do
one as part of their research uh for
their school bus driver license anyway.
So I think again it's probably and I'll
talk to the bus companies about this but
I think it's again something you could
do on those research intervals.
>> Yeah, I'm picking on them but it could
be a painter, it could be a PV company,
it could be whatever.
>> So So I think and I remember this part,
Ken, so I'm looking at it. It's at the
bottom of page three under G contract
and vendor requirements. It says no
covered contract, contractor, employee,
agent, substitute, or subcontract may
provide services, have direct or
unsupervised contact with students, or
receive unescorted access to district
facilities before district approval
because that that conversation came up
about a contractor
uh they're uh painting uh a jungle gym
at night. Do we need a background check
on a person who has no access supervised
or unsupervised to students? Because
that that question came up. Yeah.
>> Right.
>> So, um I
>> my only concern and I mean at at the
surface level I'd say I'm not incredibly
concerned about that person because
they're that. But suddenly if we're
really comfortable with Joe doing the
painting
>> Sure. and Joe comes in to do a quick
paint job for us at 11 o'clock in the
morning at one of our schools,
there are kids in the building.
>> Sure. But then, but then he falls under
the quote have direct or unsupervised
contact with students. So, if he if Joe
has now direct contact with students, he
now needs a background check.
>> Yeah. Changes that.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yep.
>> So, I feel like that paragraph covers
that. Yeah.
>> I just want to make sure it's solid that
we're not bringing people into the
buildings that we do not want.
>> And then it says, hold on a second just
to end that thought. It says the
district may direct the immediate
removal of any contractor personnel from
district work or property when necessary
to enforce this policy or protect
students. So that night painter, and
this is silly, but right, that night
painter that we didn't require a
background check for is still painting
early in the morning, students are
arriving, uh you Dan, somebody's around
like, "Hey, you got to go, right?"
That's also covered by the policy. You
don't have a background check, you got
to go.
>> Or if he turns up on the front page of
the union later,
>> that could be a reason, too.
>> Yeah.
>> Yep.
>> My question is going to be enforcement,
right? Do we know, Joe? Like, do we give
them contractor badges or
>> Yeah,
>> Dan has recently ordered contractor
badges. So, when they're in the
buildings, they're bright. I believe
they're bright yellow.
>> Okay. So, Joe would not have bright
yellow badge and Joe could not access.
>> Yeah. Joe should be walking around with
with a with a bright yellow
>> if he had the background check. But the
night painter Joe will not have a badge
to get in.
>> That's not a bad distinction. Yeah.
Otherwise, it gets into subject kind of
subjective enforcement. You just see
somebody in the playground with a
paintbrush and Right.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I'm just here to paint.
>> Yeah. I like I like the idea of
contractors who have passed their
background check having a badge.
>> Like any of us in any restricted
facility must be visible at all times.
>> Yep.
>> And then three-year rule. What about for
volunteers?
Um,
>> that one was problematic.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I'm a little bit foggy on what
that discussion was. Um,
let's see what we have so far here.
So, it says we're going to do a
background check for
>> C HRC is criminal history record check.
Yeah, but that calls out the field trips
or overnight trip chaperone
or otherwise serve as a designated
volunteer.
>> I think the objection was we're losing
volunteers because they have to pay for
this.
>> It is cheaper. So instead of 47, I think
it's 24.
Do we pay it if we want volunteers?
>> I've done that previously.
>> Yeah.
>> The only issue
is with it and I think when you get into
paying them um in my previous district,
we found that we were paying them
because we were paying them upfront with
initial hire just as a way to try and
you know merge the gap with our uh pay
scale. And then we'd have people leave
and volunteers would peel away very
quickly.
>> Yeah.
>> So you may want some type of exception
like you've got to you've got to commit
and then would refund or something like
that or reimburse them for that charge.
But
>> just so you're not blindly
>> paying it and paying it and paying it
>> for people who ultimately don't
>> fall through. Yeah.
Hate to complicate it too though.
>> Yep.
This is all very complicated.
>> Yeah. And I I actually remember a
volunteer um came and had some input uh
during public comment
>> from a volunteer. It's like I've been
volunteering in this school for you know
x amount of
>> 20 years.
>> 20 years right and and it's becoming
cumbersome for me to even do this
anymore. And so
>> y
>> you know
>> is this really the route we want to go
right? Um and I think the you know I
remember anyway the board hearing that
uh totally recognizing that you know
that loyalty that somebody you know
volunteers and you know is is pouring
into the school. And then we also have
the other immediate side of that which
is we we have to make sure that we have
people that are right that are safe for
the for kids in the school. Right.
>> And that designated volunteer definition
covers everybody who volunteers.
>> Yeah. So
>> it's how do you make it as least
unintrusive as possible? Also knowing
that there's a significant liability if
someone slips through the crack.
>> I'd like to say unsupervised,
but that's hard to enforce, too.
>> If it's you and Ken, Ken's a volunteer
and you have to leave for the bathroom,
all of a sudden Ken's unsupervised.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. That generally doesn't happen.
What happens more often is you're a
volunteer in my school and you know,
hey, you're asking me, you say, well,
what does Ken do? Oh, he's he's always
helping us in the office making copies.
And then this one morning, I got four
teachers out and I Hey, can you go down
and cover Mr. Smith's class? Um, I'm I'm
working on getting this up, but I really
need you down there right now.
>> Yeah.
>> And it's that sort of
instant incident. it's not really
planned or you know there's nothing
untoward happening there. It's just
simply I'm stuck.
>> Yeah.
>> And I think one of the examples was
>> um parents would come in and read to
first graders for example.
>> Um are we going to make if I have a
first grader and I want to come in my
first grade class and read? That's
something we want parents to do. We want
parents to be engaged, right? you know,
say love to have you, Ken, but you got
to fork up the 30 bucks and get a
background check for us before you come
read to the first graders.
>> That's part of the reason I wanted to
bring this policy because there's a
whole lot to this policy.
>> And yeah, I don't mind the changes to
contractors given
>> Yeah.
>> things that have happened that have made
the news
>> regarding contractors. The volunteers a
little bit harder.
We want to encourage them. We want
volunteers. They come,
>> they come free to us, right?
>> But we make it burdensome. You're going
to have less people,
>> right?
>> But we also don't want the parent that
wants to come read once a month is never
unsupervised, only comes in to do that,
and then it's like, oh, I hear we're
going to the apple farm. I'll take a
group to the apple farm. And then
suddenly it's that
>> the line shifts again because oh I
wanted to go with my kid there and I
didn't know they needed people.
>> So So do you have a recommendation um
Adam given your experience like what
have you seen work? You know what I
mean?
>> We've just talked about some of the
nuances and we probably there's 400 of
them that we haven't even thought of.
Let me let's table this. Let me Yeah, I
kind of want to hear Heather's input,
too. You know what I mean?
>> Because I'm also thinking parents and
even residents have access
to a basketball game and be around kids
and I can go in the men's room and I'm
alone in the men's room with a seventh
grader or whatever unsupervised. I don't
have a background check. So,
>> yeah.
>> Well, the first thing we learn is
where's the adult bathroom?
>> Yeah. But, you know what I'm saying?
There's plenty of opportunities at
sporting events where anyone can come.
>> Oh, yeah. We're not doing background
checks on any of them. So, why single
out the parent who wants to read the
first graders?
>> Yeah. And that's there's a lot that's
what actually what I was thinking of. I
was thinking how many times that we as
parents have been encouraged, invited to
come into the school uh for a science
project or you name it, right? And we're
in the school during the school day.
We're going to the bathroom. We're going
to the plays. We're going, you know what
I mean? We're here in the school quote
unquote unsupervised with kids all the
time, right? So where where's the line?
You know what I mean?
>> And no background check.
>> Yeah. No background check. Yeah.
>> But we're going to single out.
>> The distinction here is
>> volunteer versus
I I'm volunteering to read to first
graders. Therefore, I need to have a
background check versus I just show up
because I want to see the music recital
or whatever. And I'm not a volunteer,
but I'm still in the building. I'm still
around the kids. Um,
>> and the definition of designated
volunteer is so broad. It includes
everybody.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. I agree. Maybe.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Well, go back. We already know there was
missing the three-year
>> thing anyway, so it was have to go back.
So, that's fine. I'll toy around a bit.
And uh I think it would be um
definitely best practice for us to
immediately implement what we talked
about earlier as far as um
>> you know as far as contractors go,
right? We can always go stricter on a
policy um that uh
>> yeah contractors you have a lot more
leeway with because they're
>> they're in essence private uh staff to
the district. They're not they're not
they're in your policies, but they're
kind of a little bit adjacent to your
policies, too. So,
>> okay. So, we'll table GB CD. Uh we'll
get some a reddraft, some more input
from Heather and from us, and we will
reook at that one. Yep.
>> Uh next meeting. All right. And the last
one that we have on here for today's
review was KF-R1,
food service concessions and food sales
on district property. This one came also
from facilities and finance. I guess
this has been an issue um
in the facilities uh with trying to get
different things cleaned up and uh
sometimes the food storage uh procedures
are maybe not as uh stringent as we
might like. So, it's trying to make sure
that we sort of establish a baseline for
how to do that without trying to kind of
going back to our conversation about
volunteers and pun people for, you know,
the the PTO bringing in cookies uh for
staff on the on the opening meeting and
stuff like that. It doesn't it's not
going to,
>> you know, punish those type of
activities. It's more sort of, you know,
a group of like like the football
boosters or something like that trying
to have,
>> you know, cooking food and those kind of
things that sort of change things a
little bit.
>> Pancake breakfast or whatever.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> But like there has to be some sort of
making sure the food's being stored
properly and that kind of stuff and
trying to have at least some standard
for this.
>> So, we're trying to strike the balance.
Ken, I know you'll appreciate this.
We're trying to strike the balance
between not sending the child with a
lemonade stand to jail, right? Um,
however, uh, making sure that we're not
going to make people sick because we're
putting meat, uh, out in the open for
days
>> or leaving food in places where, you
know, facil some of our outdoor
facilities are not as maybe secure from,
right, uh, little critters, whatever.
So, it's just trying to establish some
standard.
>> Yep. Got it. Totally
understand that.
Who do you see in the C classification
and levels of food service? It has the
superintendent or designate shall yada
yada yada. Who do you see as that
design?
>> At this point, no.
>> Okay.
>> Okay. But a lot most of our policy refer
to the superintendent or designate.
>> Yeah. I just didn't know if you had
somebody in mind like, "Oh yeah, this is
going to be my my go-to designate."
>> Is there headed food services?
>> There is, but they don't work for the
district. So like if it's involving like
a booster club, they're sort of two
>> different islands. They're not really
connected.
The one thing I would uh work on those
sort of the food safety training is
working on that with our with our food
service vendor because they they have
those skills.
>> Yeah.
So people work with dogs have to be
trained.
>> Not all of them. One person needs to
have some, you know, so we're just not
leaving hot dogs out in the hot sun to
wait forever.
>> Hot dogs are probably safe,
>> possibly.
>> Yeah.
So, I want to go back all the way to
level one. Uh because I kind of skipped
over it because I was like, "Oh, yeah."
And I went to level two. So, if people
have uh bags of Skittles
and Hostess cakes,
they need approval to use the facility,
identification of a responsible adult,
appropriate trash cleanup, compliance
with district policy
to sell bags of Skittles or Hostess
Cakes.
Just the idea so that way you don't have
like 4,000 different concession stands
popping up or competing stands and this
>> Okay. Okay.
>> Yeah. Because it I think part of the
reason this had come from facilities and
finance was it it's kind of the wild
west.
>> Okay.
>> Like a lot of people trying to do the
right thing and help you know things are
>> you know it's trying to like even like
storage and making sure things are being
stored properly and making sure that
those things are being done.
>> Okay. and trying to get some some
structure, I guess, for lack of a better
term around them.
>> Okay.
>> What venues would they can't just put a
stand out in front of the school any
day, right?
>> No, but that's generally not something
that happens. It's more sports. It's
more like um I don't know what they do
for like uh music events or plays or
something like that, but those kind of
things. I was just curious because it's
kind of like the Wild Wild West. I don't
see people just randomly popping up. No
Skittle stands.
>> And for the plays, we actually have used
historically anyways, we've used our
vendor who does the meals. They prepare
a um uh like a tray of cookies, a tray
of brownies, like stuff like that. Or uh
like the music boosters uh would sell
cakes or cookies or Yeah.
>> Yeah. For the most part, the nice part
is there is the the law in place and
that was u um in terms of the four days
per 28 day period. But
>> what's that? What's that rule?
>> It's under additional state
requirements.
>> Yeah.
>> No more than four days.
>> That's an occasional food service
establishment. Yeah.
And were there recommended changes to
this one or is this
>> this doesn't exist?
>> Oh, it doesn't exist today.
>> Yeah, this is the draft.
>> Yeah, that's why I didn't give you a
current version.
>> And would there was was there nothing on
the uh New Hampshire School Board
Association for a draft on this one? No.
>> No. Okay.
>> Now, this is one that they had talked
about. I want to say it was my first
meeting in July.
>> Yeah.
>> They had talked about this at length in
their meeting
>> and there are um governing.
>> Yes.
>> Laws.
>> Yeah. I see RSA's quoted throughout.
>> Yeah. Because what when the policy
committee or not the policy committee
the facilities and finance committee
talked about this bunch of people had
seen the footage and thought we're going
to require safe serve for
>> everything.
Yeah, I like that the training quote
there under D.
that the district shall make reasonable
efforts to provide or identify an annual
food safety orientation for designated
level three service coordinators without
imposing unnecessary financial barriers
upon volunteers or organizations
supporting district students and
programs.
>> Yeah, that was the other issue too of
we're not making thousands of dollars
here to then go spend $600 on a safe
serve course, right? Yep. Yep.
>> Yeah. Again,
trying to find the appropriate middle
ground.
Got a couple different avenues for doing
the training.
>> What level three do we have today?
I think the concern was football.
>> The concession stand because they they
tend to be the ones that cook.
>> Yeah. Yeah. They're with the Yeah.
grilling. Yeah. Hamburgers and hot dogs.
Yep.
>> And then they'll leave like the grill
inside the
concession stand. And what the
facilities director felt was sometimes
it's not clean as well as it does. And
in the fall when rodents are looking for
places to spend the winter,
>> a a grill with recently charred food is
a very good target.
>> Attractive target. Yeah.
>> Yes.
>> Where's that address in post? Is that
address in the post?
>> Yes.
>> Activities.
>> Yep.
posted that responsibility. Yep.
>> And you also have in here that we have
you have the right to revoke
>> permission. Yeah. If they don't
>> they never have to do that.
>> But if Ken Hamilton
bugs out and doesn't clean the grill.
>> Ken's really had a rough night tonight.
He can revoke his permission.
Yeah. Okay. Um,
do I have any motion on this one? Uh, or
is this going to We're going to table
this one
as well.
>> We have his input.
>> Yeah, we When is the actually I have it
up here. Uh the next meeting
is Wednesday, October 21st. Yes. So
that's about a month away.
Um
>> I personally don't have any changes that
jump out.
>> Yeah.
>> So I wouldn't mind submitting it for
first read.
>> Okay. Okay.
>> Is that your motion?
>> You're okay with it? Yeah. Make a motion
to bring this to the board for first
read.
>> Great. I will second that. Any further
discussion? I think the only discussion
I have is that'll give us an opportunity
to get Heather's input. You know what I
mean? Um, take another peek through it,
get Heather's input u before we get
broader board. Um, okay, sounds good.
All those in favor?
>> Great.
>> Heather did bring me some concerns from
the community about this after
facilities and finance discussed it. So,
she has seen this.
>> Great. Great. Uh, and she did message me
as well that she had reviewed uh, the
policies when she let me know she wasn't
going to be here this evening. Um, she
did let me know she had reviewed it. Um,
and I've already given her input. So,
>> and BRC is a criminal record check.
>> What's that?
>> And a BRC is a criminal record check
>> because I had the same question.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
Um, okay. Uh so on to the next item on
the agenda which was policy manual
review discussion and I think this was
sort of the broader discussion correct
um
>> where you want to head because I could
keep chipping away at policies but the
reality is you pro I've always sort of
advocated you start at a and
>> you work through the alphabet
>> and it's sort of you know look at some
and
>> sure
>> you know and you and basically Like what
I've done before too is given you or
given uh policy committees in the past
the policy your your last revision date
because I when I went through the
policies this summer I did a list
basically of every policy what the
board's last revision date was what the
school board's last revision date was
>> and then that at least gives you uh you
know do you want to attack the policies
where you're out of date. Um, in some
cases you might be ahead of them. I
would say from reviewing the policy
manual for the most part you're behind,
but um, I think you've hit on the ones
that you need to have hit on in the past
couple years. But, uh, you know, sort of
how you want to
because it's it's not going to be done
in two meetings.
It's going to take multiple meanings per
book and you know you get really
comfortable in the first three chapters
>> but there's not many policies and then
you start getting into the students and
the instruction and the staff ones and
there's a lot of policies.
>> Yeah.
>> So I think you shared a link but I was
>> I have fixed it.
>> Okay. I was I wasn't running on the new
website.
>> Okay. So we can access it. That's good.
That's first.
>> Yeah. And that's the other thing too,
like you know, I came from a world where
our policy manual was paper and that's
how it was.
>> And I actually getting used to doing it
online now and I wish I could get it to
read the policies as opposed to having
to create keywords and descriptions of
policies. So trying to capture what
someone might put in for keyword search.
But it does seem to be working in terms
of discipline. here's the 10 policies
that relate to discipline. Um, so I
think that's helping and that kind of
stuff. And yeah, the nice part I'm sort
of realizing the nice part is not having
a paper policy manual is I'm I'm less
worried about the number of policies now
and more making sure things like some of
the policies we talked about tonight
that we're getting the policies we need
in the book. But I just not sure how you
want to do this because this is a this
is a multi-year challenge.
>> Sure.
>> So Ken, if I can just ask the question.
Uh so I know that we have hundreds of
policies. I don't know the exact number.
>> Um I feel like we have a lot of policies
that are redundant and we probably have
some that we don't even need to have.
>> Um so
>> you also have policies that reference
two the same policy in two different
places in the book.
>> Right. So with that said, uh I had made
a comment uh about the structure of how
we're reviewing things. You've been on
the committee for a few years. I have
not.
>> I don't know if we go three policies a
meeting. I don't think we'd review all
of our policies in a school board
member's three-year term on the board.
>> Great.
>> Yeah. So do you have a thought given
your experience what you've seen work
and not work thus far that would get us
through policies in a three-year block?
So,
for the time I've been on this
committee, it's always the
superintendent who has brought policies
to the subcommittee, not the
subcommittee deciding or even having
input necessarily into which ones should
be reviewed.
>> I don't know if that should change. I
think it should be more um
cooperative, if you will. I had asked
the previous superintendent if I could
get a copy of all the policy PDS on a
USB drive and I would sick AI on it and
do some of what you're already doing,
but you you've done it, so thank you.
Might still be worthwhile to do it
again.
>> Well, my thing was going to the old
website and downloading one PDF at a
time and there's over 400 of them. It's
just not something I'm going to spend my
time doing. I thought they're on a
folder on a drive somewhere. somebody
with that, you know, Gordon or somebody
could take a USB key
>> and plug it in and
>> I will say and moving the policies over
I had to do exactly that
>> one at a time. Demo demo.
>> So that's kind still an outstanding
request. I think having them I mean
they're public. It's not not an issue to
get them on a key and then you you can
search them. I can search them. Chat GPT
can search them.
>> I can share the folder with you. It's
It's now in Google and yeah,
everything's alphabetized and
>> and I think that'll help me prioritize I
think what you've done already. When was
the last time the board revised it? When
did the schoolboard association revise
theirs? That's one dimension. Another
dimension is how important is it? Like
you said,
>> there are student things there. There
are curriculum things. There are things
that are maybe more important than
certain other things. Sure,
>> it's going to be somewhat subjective,
but we need access to the
>> to that list, I think, to to make the
determination. thing I have put in the
list too is policies that you have that
don't exist on the school board uh list
and vice versa.
>> So also too you can find ones that uh
that don't exist. What I've also found
reviews too is sometimes you go these
three policies seem remarkably close
together. How can we push them together
>> and do that? And so
>> that's unfortunately that's when you can
go
>> in essence line by line through the
sheet it does lend itself to some
reductions and stuff especially some of
the preamble policies in the first three
sections
>> and they every contract is its own
policy like the whatever the last
>> uh those are not in the directory to me
they are not policies
>> policy now so I asked the NHSA
representative when he was here in the
spring how many on average the districts
have and we said around 200 we have over
400 so clearly we're topheavy
>> I would like to see us prune the list
>> only because
>> you know the needle in the haststack
let's make the hay stack smaller so when
I'm gone you're gone the next person
coming in doesn't have to go back and
review 400 right or scan 400 or whatever
it is they're going to do
>> but that's is why I made it searchable
too yeah just the idea of trying to do
that because I will say I think in in
now being in a larger district the one
thing I do appreciate is the number of
policies because at least when I'm like
>> huh what do I do about this it gives me
a direction versus
>> the because it used to be okay
everyone's got their giant binder
>> and let's try and find the policies on
this and then
>> is that in J or is that an I can't
remember
and so that's
>> yeah I think that's where I would
advocate just at least starting with the
list and saying, "Okay, A's, what do we
want to look at?"
>> And then I can share definitely share
the policy folder with you. That's
that's an easy thing to do.
>> Yep.
And then you'll also find that you've
got like four different generations of
policies and just because Phyis and I
have been looking at with the policies
that have been approved by the board
recently of trying to clean the format
up so doesn't have to spend three weeks
trying to
>> get the get the format. So the idea take
this out take this out and there's the
policy.
>> Okay.
>> So go ahead.
>> Uh so in the name of time because we got
about four more minutes we have a small
break before the start of the board
meeting. Uh so you'll guide uh both uh
Ken and I and Heather to the folder so
that we can access that.
>> Uh we'll start with a uh we'll start at
the beginning and work our way through.
I think we can make some pretty pretty
quick work. Uh I do want to give you
credit. Uh Dr. Hootton uh he did reach
out uh prior to this meeting and said,
"Hey, do you have any policies that the
board would like to I want this to be
collaborative." So he's already doing
what we're thinking, right? Which is
fantastic, right? Um and then we can
start at A. But for any reason moving
forward, Dr. Hton, if there's something
that pops up just like this that another
subcommittee needs action on or that you
think that we need action on, bring that
forward. And if not, we'll just continue
working through starting with a
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Changing laws, things that we need to
address.
>> Well, that's why I'll make sure I'm
sending the policy updates that the
school board association because that at
least gives you this law changed, this
policy now is different. And
>> and because that's the other thing I've
done is okay, here's the policies.
They're sort of saying you really need
to revise.
>> We should at least be keeping up with
the laws.
>> Yeah.
>> Yes.
>> Um this is completely off topic. It's
just an opinion thing. I like this.
Right.
>> As I look through the rest, I'm looking
for which one we're looking at.
>> If I have an opinion, but if we be kind
of consistent that pops out.
>> Yeah, we're we are looking for a
consistent design. So
>> this one pops out. You know, the other
ones I was kind of searching a little
bit.
>> Yep.
>> On the other one, there's another one
like, oh, it's small print up here.
>> Yeah.
>> Over here.
>> Yes, totally.
>> Of course.
>> Perfect.
>> We're not We're not married to a format
at this point.
>> I just don't like the fact that there's
multiple different formats in the polic.
>> Agree.
>> Great.
>> Consistency is
>> okay. Uh let's see. I will open it up
for any public comment. Does not appear
to be anybody here for public comment.
So we will move on uh to item number
eight. The next meeting for the policy
and personnel subcommittee will be
Wednesday, October 21st, 2026.
There being nothing further, uh we will
adjourn for the evening at 5:53.