Board reviews student rights and responsibilities

JOEL DAVIDSONFrontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Proposed changes to the Mat-Su Borough School District's Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook and Board Policy would mean much tighter rules regarding dress code and attendance requirements, as well as more details about appealing school suspensions and expulsions.

After 18 months of committee discussions, legal reviews and community town hall meetings, the district presented the school board with recommendations for considerable changes to a number of current policies.

It's been nearly 10 years since the student handbook was substantially altered. As the district continues to grow and incorporate increasingly more students and families from varying backgrounds, school officials believed it was time to go back over the student handbook and make revisions that reflected the changing community and school environments.

Some of the more sweeping proposals involve recommendations to completely do away with excused absences, more clearly defined dress code requirements and several changes to the process of appealing suspensions and expulsions.

Under current board policy, students may receive excused absences for a number of reasons, including illness, attendance at religious services and extenuating circumstances.

Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle argued that the current policy, allowing 10 absent days, gave some people a sense of entitlement to miss those days.

"What is the loss of instructional time for 10 days out of 173 contact days with children?" Doyle said.

Whether it's excused or unexcused, Doyle argued that the kids still missed instructional time, which is very difficult to make up.

Under the proposed student handbook, a telephone call would be made to parents after their child accumulated three absences. After five days a written notice would go home and after nine days, the student's absences would be considered habitual. In cases of habitually truant students, the new handbook states that a referral may be made to the Office of Children's Services.

The proposed handbook makes no distinction between excused and unexcused absences but the school principal would have the final authority and discretion on matters related to discipline for truancy.

"We really wanted to just say, it is an absence," Doyle told school board members Wednesday. "If you're missing, you're absent and that's the way this policy is."

In another proposed change, the dress code policy would expand from the current one-sentence description to a detailed four-paragraph explanation of what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable school attire.

At town hall meetings held earlier in the school year, a number of parents voiced concern about lax dress codes and scantily clad students. The current dress code states that students, "shall attend school clothed in a manner which is clean, not hazardous to the safety of the student or others, and which does not detract from the educational environment."

The expanded dress code suggestions are much more specific, banning attire that contains obscenities, advocates prejudice or advertises alcohol, tobacco or illegal substances. It also prohibits revealing clothing, which includes clothes that, among other things, are low cut, transparent or containing holes above the knee.

Administration and appeals of suspensions and expulsions was another area in which the school district recommended a series of changes, including granting principals greater freedom to deny co-curricular participants the opportunity to participate or practice until the appeal of a suspension is resolved. The proposals also include a more detailed account of the procedural guidelines governing appeals to the school board.

School board member Sarah Welton was instrumental in helping come up with the proposed changes.

"The changes that were made were significant," she told her colleagues Wednesday. "There were a lot of changes, a lot of changes in language, a lot of additions."

To review the proposed student handbook, individuals may go online to www.matsuk12.us/RunScript.asp?p=ASP\Pg0.asp. Hard copies are available at the school district's administrative offices in Palmer. For more information about obtaining a hard copy, people may call 746-9251.

The school board will conduct a second reading of the proposed changes during its regular scheduled meeting at 6 p.m., March 2, at Palmer High School.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.