School Board reviews student, employee handbooks
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A host of Marshalltown Community School District administrators were on hand at the regular meeting of the school board Monday as they discussed potential changes to student and employee handbooks with the board for the upcoming school year.
Although the board did not vote to codify the guidelines during the meeting, the initial review of the documents provided insight into possible changes to student and employee conduct in the district.
Notably, additional language in the Miller Middle School handbook was tentatively added concerning the filming of altercations between students and subsequent punishment for sharing videos of the altercations.
The proposed new rule reads "Students who use personal technology to record altercations or interactions between students for the purpose of sharing through text or social media will be subject to disciplinary actions up to and including suspension."
As Miller Middle School Co-Principal Dave Glenn explained, the addition was in response to past incidents within the school involving students instigating altercations for the purposes of filming and distribution.
"We had a lot of students who were not only recording altercations, but encouraging altercations for the purposes of being able to catch it on camera," Glenn said. "Since they were not directly involved in the altercation, they weren't really facing any sort of consequences for essentially inciting those altercations, and so this has greatly curbed the number of altercations that we've had since we started working on that this year."
Similar verbiage was also included in the MHS handbook for the 2023-2024 school year, which read, "Use of cell phones or other electronic devices to photograph, record, and/or disseminate the same to others without permission is prohibited and will result in disciplinary action up to and including suspension/expulsion."
MHS Principal Jacque Wyant echoed Glenn's thoughts sharing comparable incidents occurring at MHS which lead to the addition.
"Examples include things like kids videotaping during fights, which has happened," Wyant said. "Instead of going to get an adult."
Another proposed change added language about students loitering in school parking lots, which read, "Students found loitering in the parking lot including in vehicles during school hours is a violation of closed campus and will be subject to search and disciplinary action."
"We do have a closed campus," Wyant explained. "So even if they are on dismissal and are returning, they shouldn't be loitering in their cars, possibly vaping, who knows. You should park the car and get out, get into the school, etc, or leave promptly as well. If they continue to loiter, then they're going to be subject to search."
For employees in the district, an overhaul in illness leave was considered at Monday's meeting.
Currently, the district offers two "banks" for illness leaves, one for family and another for personal use.
All staff except certified staff receive 15 days of paid illness leave for personal use and five days of paid leave for family use.
Certified staff, which includes positions like teachers, counselors, and librarians, receive 15 days of illness leave for personal use and 10 days of leave for family use, with the last five of those days being "pay the sub" days which deduct pay from staff paychecks as part of the day of leave. Staff are able to rollover up to 15 unused illness leave each year for a maximum of 140 "banked" illness days during their tenure at MCSD.
The new changes could see all permanent employees switch to a singular "bank" of illness leave and receive 20 days of illness leave each year, both to be used "however you see fit," as Director of Human Resources Nora Ryan said.
Illness leave up to 20 days would rollover each year for a maximum of 140 days in their banks.
"(Over) the past two years, not a single employee would have been negatively impacted by this change," Ryan said, citing data gathered from the district's absence management system. "I took a look at those people who had to dip into those leaves, and this change would have benefited them. It would have added more money to their pocket, and they still would have accumulated more days. In addition, those individuals who had to go unpaid for their own illness would have benefited from this change."
She added that one employee "would have saved $1,801 before taxes" while "another employee, having this extra week, would have saved them $1,200."
"I'm still really proud that we're able to offer the 20 days for all of our staff," Ryan said. "Most districts only give the legal minimum required of sick leave, which is 15 days, and most districts say you can have 15 days per year and then they'll make five or seven of those available for your family. So they cap how many days can be used for their family and the absolute total is 15."
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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.