Editorial: School Board to vote on 100+ board policy changes

At the Sept. 9 regular meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, board president Amy Pearce presented more than 100 updates to the board policy, as recommended by the board’s law firm, Thrun.
Many have to do with changes in the law so the policy will comply with current law. Innumerable are the changes to the “parent/guardian” language to just “Parent” with a capital “P” to designate whoever is in that capacity.
Also, “his or her” is now “their” to get away from gender. There were 13 new legal changes for Title IX subjects, including providing a time and place for students and staff to breast feed infants.
Then, due to the law, if the district passes any new bonds it will have to pay prevailing wage. The current bonds are grandfathered in. Also, there is a new procedure on how weapons are turned over to law enforcement and that hairstyle and makeup are not reasons for discipline.
Another policy is that if free lunches go away, there will be no negative balance for students who can’t pay but will eat.
At the end of the long session, Pearce said because of the law, the district does not have to display the American flag in a prominent place at each school building, but this school district is displaying the flag and will continue to do so.
You can get the 200 pages where the changes are held to look them over before the board votes on them at its Sept. 23 meeting.