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Questionable Claims about the Massachusetts Association of School Committees Derail SPS Policy Subcommittee
On Thursday November 21 the Sudbury Public Schools policy subcommittee met to discuss a laundry list of policy updates and additions with Superintendent Brad Crozier. Mandy Sim and Karyn Jones are the two members of the subcommittee. (Agenda here.)
The agenda included policies covering Title IX sex-based harassment, the Special Education Parent Advisory Council, gender identity, equity, cell phone use, and civil rights grievance procedures, to name just a few.
The meeting got off to a quick start, with all of the Title IX policy updates getting the vote to be sent up to the full school committee for consideration. Those included:
AC: Non-Discrimination Policy Including Harassment and Retaliation
AC-R: Non-Discrimination Policy Including Harassment and Retaliation
ACA-R: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex under Title IX including sex-based Harassment
ACAB: Sexual & Sex-Based Harassment and Retaliation
ACGA: Civil Rights Grievance Procedure
ACGB: Title IX Sexual Discrimination Grievance Procedure
But momentum hit a wall mid-meeting when a policy regarding the special education parent advisory council (SEPAC) came up for discussion. Jones wanted to add a policy that would establish procedures for ongoing communication and collaboration with the Sudbury SEPAC. She previously served on SEPAC and said that nobody from the school committee ever attended a single SEPAC meeting during her time there. She wanted a policy that would give clear direction on what was expected.
Sim voiced strong opposition to the policy subcommittee developing such a policy, or any policy. She argued that the committee would be “creating laws” and questioned if someone could get kicked off the school committee if they ran afoul of a policy. She emphasized: “This would be our law in the district.” She went on to suggest that any policy edit or addition that gets taken up by the committee should come from either the district’s legal counsel, or the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC).
With regard to the substance of the proposed SEPAC policy, Sim said she would support such a policy if it came from MASC, but was uncomfortable with developing policies within the policy subcommittee itself.
The school committee is a policing-setting committee. And MASC itself says policy is the primary role of the school committee:
Establish and periodically review educational goals and policies for the schools in the district, consistent with the requirements of law and the statewide goals and standards established by the Board of Education. This is the primary role of the school committee. Policies should be reflective of the fact that the school committee has oversight of and responsibility for the school system, the direction in which the system must go, and establish criteria to determine if its goals and policies are being met.
MASC School Committee Roles and Responsibilities
The MASC member handbook also says, with regard to district policies, that: “These guidelines, called policy statements, are local matters and may vary widely from one community to another.”
Sim went on to claim that MASC is the committee’s “governing body.” Jones pushed back that MASC is not their governing body and cited SPS policies already on the books that didn’t come from MASC.
MASC is not a governing body for any school committee, and does not represent itself as such on their website.
MASC itself tells members that its code of ethics for members has no authority over committees: “Although the Code has no regulatory or statutory standing, we encourage all members to refer to it often as it incorporates suggested standards of behavior and guidelines for appropriate school committee member conduct.”
One does not need to look outside Sudbury Public Schools to find that policy development belongs to the committee. SPS School Committee policy (BBA – School Committee Powers and Duties) clearly states:
BBA – SCHOOL COMMITTEE POWERS AND DUTIES
The School Committee has all the powers conferred upon it by state law and must perform those duties mandated by the state. These include the responsibility and right to determine policies and practices and to employ a staff to implement its directions for the proper education of the children of the community.
Superintendent Crozier weighed in with support for another idea advanced by Sim: to consider the SEPAC policy a matter for the school committee handbook, rather than taking it up as policy.
The subcommittee agreed to send the SEPAC policy ideas to staff to review and provide feedback. With scheduled meeting time running out after the long debate about policy roles, Member Jones also asked that the same be done with the following policies in the packet:
JB-B – Gender Identity Support
KCDE – Equity Policy
JICJ – Student Use of Technology in School / Student Cell Phone Use
The bulk of the other policies listed on the agenda were not discussed.
It’s unclear what, if anything, will happen with the policies headed for staff review, or any of the other “new” policies listed on the agenda. If the school committee chooses to limit itself solely to adopting policies brought forth by MASC, it would eliminate their ability to implement policy in some areas. For example, the MASC policy on “student use of technology in school” doesn’t contemplate personal smartphone usage. Similarly, MASC does not currently have a gender identity support policy. MASC policies can be reviewed here.
Soon after the subcommittee meeting concluded, the agenda for the full school committee meeting on Monday, November 25 posted. It includes an agenda item titled “Subcommittee Appointments and Charge.”
While it’s hard to predict the intent of the agenda item, the wording opens the door for the committee to vote to narrow the “charge” of the policy subcommittee, or to rearrange the membership of the policy subcommittee. The only other listed subcommittee on the SPS website is the Negotiations Subcommittee, upon which Chair Nicole Burnard and Vice-Chair Meredith Gerson serve.