Town meetings set to address student discipline

MAT-SU -- How should public school students be disciplined? What types of clothing should they be allowed to wear? How can schools best ensure the safety and well-being of students?

These questions and more will be discussed next week, when the Mat-Su Borough School District hosts three town meetings to receive input from parents and community members before they revise the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.

The handbook covers everything from searching lockers to expulsions to general student conduct requirements. School and classroom environments will likely be affected by the public comment and final revisions to the handbook.

The meetings will be broken into two sessions to allow public comment. First, a general session will open to discuss student rights and responsibilities. Afterwards, people will break into smaller groups to address more specific issues like bullying, school discipline, attendance, dress codes, school safety and cell phone use.

Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle will be on hand, along with Assistant Superintendent George Troxel, Director of Education Lebron McPhail and Information Specialist Kim Floyd.

Together, the four officials will facilitate discussion and compile comments to present to a committee that is working on revisions to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.

After all comments are in, the committee will make additional revisions and present the handbook to the Mat-Su School Board for final approval. If accepted, the revised handbook would be distributed to students next school year.

Floyd said it is important for the public to be involved in the whole revision process.

"We need to make sure community input is included in addressing student discipline and safety," Floyd said. "We need to know what their expectations are and if they can't be at the meetings, then they can call the office to give us feedback."

The three meetings are scheduled for Oct. 12, 13 and 14, at Palmer High School, Wasilla High School and Houston High School, respectively. Meeting times will run between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

For information about the proposed changes, Floyd encourages people to log onto the school district Web site at www.matsuk12.us and read over the tentative draft for the revised handbook.

For any other related questions, people may contact the Chief School Administrator's Office at (907) 746-9255.

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