Student Handbooks, unfilled positions some key topics of Thursday’s KCSD work session

By Christopher Miller

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP -A hot topic item discussed in length Thursday night was the updated Student Handbooks that are available to all students and parents in multiple places online and in their digital classrooms.

School board member Elizabeth Lynch asked the board to, “look into the option of adding a Whistleblower Policy to the student handbook along with the Safe to Say policy already in place.” Board President Butch Knauff mentioned that the whistleblower policy is more for employees, with Lynch replied with, “it was for anybody,” adding in that she has had multiple citizens of the community coming up to her, talking to her, asking about a whistleblower policy.

“I think we should look into it and see if it is appropriate to add to the student handbook,” Lynch added. “It is for whoever wants to stay anonymous, Safe to Say is a great program too, but it is a little bit different.”

Dr. Baldino questioned the availability of data of students “who actually read this (the handbook).”

A short impromptu presentation was made from school administrators explaining how the handbook is discussed in their schools.

“We do not have specific data of who has accessed it, but it is shared on each teacher’s Schoology pages (learning access system) each school year, that the students access on a daily basis, the handbook is also posted on the KCSD website every year. We gather the students together every year and go over the changes to the handbook and the policies that come up the most frequently such as the cell phone and dress code policies, as well as anything that has changed over the summer, and we share it with parents on the Class Dojo page,” a district employee explained.

“My point is that my head is spinning after reading this,” Dr. Baldino exclaimed. “Would something that is much simpler might actually be useful? I have a feeling this is not too useful.”

“I want to give an opportunity for an elementary school principal and Bucktail principal to tell us how the handbook is discussed in their schools,” Dr. Redmon asked the administrators.

“The key components are shared with our students but at the elementary level the handbook is a guide for our parents as well, so they understand what policies and expectations are in place for our students at the elementary level. It’s more integrated into our PBIS program where school-wide expectations are clearly stated, but there is a sign off at the beginning of the year asking the parents if they have received it, but to validate that it was read word-for-word, I do not have data on that,” Robb Principal Tyler Barth explained to the board.

“Just to follow up with what Deb and Tyler had said, it is a similar process with beginning of the year assemblies for our students to go over changes to the handbook, but what he said, there is no way for us to verify who has read it, but it is accessible via our website and Schoology,” Bucktail Principal James Poleto said.

“At the middle school, we do similar things: the assemblies, Frequent Flyer Policies with our kids, the PBIS and those expectations, but I feel why the handbook is relevant is that it is a place where we can point parents when they have questions about the policies,” Central Mountain Middle School Principal Dave Romanyshyn said.

“It is essentially reference material more than it is something we expect everyone to read word-for-word ,” Dr. Redmon said.

“I am just suggesting if it was made simpler and shorter, it may be more useful,” Dr. Baldino said. “If you’re going over the high points, why not put the rest of the stuff some place else, and provide references for that when necessary.”

“I do see Bill’s point and I remember when this was first developed,” Elizabeth Lynch said. “Maybe next year we can have a hybrid where we consider just highlights, then links to it on our website, instead of so much text we could have the full text, and then just links to the high points.”

Butch Knauff then chimed in to mention that next year the board could work on adjusting the handbook and Dr. Redmon added perhaps adding links in the handbook to pages on the school website.

Chris Scaff commended the students on their fundraising of $4,556.90 that was payable to Walker Funeral Home.

“I think the 2024 class should be commended for standing up, taking their own money, and helping the family out in the worst of times, I would ask that the Board pass that on,” Scaff said. “To see the students step up to help the family, that is not heard very often.”

Lastly, after a brief, private, executive session to discuss a personnel issue, board member Elizabeth Lynch expressed her interest “in learning about these companies that find individuals who are highly qualified from overseas to come and work for us” to fill open teaching positions.

“If there is any interest at all I would really like the board to consider giving administration the reigns, look at these companies, and come back to us with something,” Lynch expressed. “My personal tolerance for these unfilled positions is pretty much gone, and it is not the fault of the district, it is a national problem and it only appears that it is only going to be getting worse.”

Butch asked Lynch what positions is she talking about. “Math, science…,” she began.

“Professional staff, custodial staff, professional staff, okay, how many positions are we talking about,” he asked.

“Right now it is actually in flux, we had some people announce this week that are asking to move on,” Dr. Redmon said.

“It seems that math, the sciences, seems to be a continual trend and I don’t see that changing, and there have been lots of benefits to have highly qualified staff from other countries to come, especially for the kids,” Lynch added.

“It seems that we are actually doing very well,” Dr. Redmon said. “I would have to talk to my staff to see how stressed we are about some of these positions.”

“I think this is desperately needed,” Lynch said.

Chris Scaff ended the meeting bringing up the recurring trend of people leaving the district’s custodial staff.

“We are light on that,” Dr. Redmon said. “We need custodians.”

“Why are they leaving,” Scaff asked.

“I think the answer to some of that is about salary,” Dr. Redmon added.

A quick examination of the Human Resources page on the school district website displayed 53 open positions, with food services (11) and maintenance/custodial (8), support staff (8), and student support services (7) being the categories with the most openings.

Board members Tom Cannon, Tracy Smith, and Polly Donahay were absent from Thursday’s work session meeting.