Policies of a school district, especially those negotiated with bargaining representatives for the protection of teachers, have the full force and effect of law, and legally bind the school district. Wessington Springs Ed. Assoc. v. Wessington springs Sch. Dist., 467 N.W. 2d 101 (S.D. 1991).

 

By Gerry Kaufman

 

The ASBSD Policy Review Committee recently finalized work on a number of policies that deal with adoption of school board policies, regulations and handbooks, implementation and suspension of policies and administration in absence of policy.

 

Those amended policies include:

• BFC:  Board Policy Development and Adoption
  • Sample policy BFC was renamed from Policy Adoption to Board Policy Development and Adoption;
  • Current sample policies BF (Board Policy Development), BFB (Preliminary Development of Policies) and BFG (Policy Review and Evaluation) were consolidated and incorporated into the updated BFC sample policy;
  • “With the amendment to sample BFC, sample policies BF, BFB and BFG were removed from ASBSD sample policies,” ASBSD Director of Policy & Legal Services Gerry Kaufman said.
• CH: Policy and Regulation Implementation
  • Sample policy CH was renamed from Policy Implementation to Policy and Regulation Implementation;
  • Current sample policies CHA (Development of Regulations), CHC (Regulations Dissemination) and BFD (Policy Dissemination) were consolidated and incorporated into sample policy CH (Policy and Regulation Implementation);
  • Sample policies CHA, CHC and BFD were incorporated into the amended CH sample policy,” Kaufman said.

• BFCA: Board Regulations and Handbooks
• • Sample policy BFCA was renamed from Board Review of Regulations to Board Regulations and Handbooks;
  • Current sample policy CHCA (Approval of Handbooks and Directives) was consolidated and incorporated into sample policy BFCA (Board Regulations and Handbooks).
  • “With the amendment to sample policy BFCA, the CHCA sample policy was removed from our sample policies as the amended version of BFCA addresses approval and implementation of Board regulations and handbooks,” Kaufman said.
• BFF: Suspension of Policies and Regulations
  • Sample policy BFF was renamed from Suspension of Policies to Suspension of Policies and Regulations;
  • “Sample policy BFF, as amended, changed what is required to suspend a previously adopted policy and also gave the Board authority to suspend regulations,” Kaufman said.
• CHD: Administration in Absence of Policy or Regulation
  • Sample policy CHD was renamed from Administration in Policy Absence to Administration in Absence of Policy or Regulation;
  • “The amended policy CHD gives the superintendent the temporary authority to deal with a situation when there is not a Board approved policy or regulation addressing the matter,” Kaufman said.

For questions related to the policies, contact Kaufman at gkaufman@asbsd.org or at 605-773-2513.

 

To access the ASBSD Policy Services website, school board members and administrators must login at http://policy.asbsd.org. Your district’s login and password information has been previously provided to your district’s administration.

 

If you are not able to access the ASBSD Policy Services website, please contact your district’s administration or ASBSD Policy Services Associate Kay Thompson-Tieszen at kay@asbsd.org.