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.
By Gerry Kaufman, ASBSD Director of Policy & Legal Services
ASBSD has amended sample policy BDDH: Public Participation at Board Meetings (Public/Open Forum at Board Meetings), and added an exhibit, BDDH-E (1), which accompanies the amended BDDH policy, and a new sample policy, DIAB: E-Rate Records Retention.
The amended Public Participation at Board Meetings Policy is designed to allow public input at a school board meeting prior to the school board approving the meeting agenda and the board conducting business.
In addition to identifying the procedure to be followed by someone wishing to address the school board, the sample policy establishes the amount of time a person may speak while allowing for extensions to be granted to the time allotted.
Policy BDDH also identifies the authority given to the school board president/chairperson should a person not comply with the school board policy related to public participation at school board meetings.
The exhibit, BDDH-E (1) is a School Board Meeting Speaker Sign-in Sheet.
ASBSD’s newest sample policy is policy DIAB: E-Rate Records Retention.
E-Rate is the commonly used term for the Federal Communications Commission program which assists schools in obtaining telecommunications and internet access. The S.D. Bureau of Administration, Records Retention Division and FCC rules require retention of E-Rate records for 10 years.
ASBSD sample policy DIAB will help districts identify the types of records to be retained in order to comply with the retention requirement.
To access the sample policies, school board members and administrators must login to the ASBSD Online Policy Reference Manual 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 online policy manual, please contact your district’s administration or ASBSD Policy Services Associate Kay Thompson-Tieszen at kay@asbsd.org.