The Haywood County School Board held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 9. Board members, among other business, approved new policies, several school trips, the Textbook Adoption Committee and discussed the Extended Contract Proposal.

 

Superintendent Teresa Russell reported that the schools will receive a $646,000 Gear Up Grant that the city secured on behalf of the schools. She said it is a mentoring and tutoring program for the students who are now in the seventh grade. This program will follow those students through their first year of college.

 

Mrs. Russell also reported on the success of the HHS Homecoming activities on September 21.

In old business, school board members approved six policies on their second reading at the October meeting. These included policies concerning Charter Schools, Separation Practices for Tenured and Non-Tenured Teachers, the Evaluation of the Director of Schools, and four policies about student behavior.

1) One of them is about Discipline procedures: Under Level I Offenses, the policy adds the following words as an example of a Level I Offense: “Wearing, while on the grounds of a public school during the regular school day, clothing that exposes underwear or body parts in an indecent manner that disrupts the learning environment.”

2) Another change is in the policy that governs Suspension/Expulsion/Remand. The policy adds the following words (underlined) in Item #8:  “Assaulting a principal, teacher, school bus driver or other school personnel with vulgar, obscene or threatening language.”

3) The third policy change involves The Alternative School Programs: for students who have been suspended or expelled from regular school programs – is now extended to cover students in sixth through twelfth grades, since the Middle School now includes the sixth grade.

 

4) The last policy change involves the safe relocation of students. “Employees who are directly responsible for a student’s education or who otherwise interact within the scope of their assigned duties may relocate a student from the student’s present location to another location when such relocation is necessary for the student’s safety or the safety of others.”

 

Five more policy changes were approved on first reading at the meeting.

 

Board members approved a trip for the HHS Marching Band to go to Jackson, Mississippi, to participate in the High School Band Day at Jackson State University. This trip is November 9-10. Dumanic Wade is the band director.

 

FCCLA members in the HHS Career and Technical Division received approval for a trip to the National Cluster meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 14-18. Advisors for the group are Denita Jarratt, Sarah Haynes and Vickie Noles.

 

The next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 13, at 6 p.m.