Last modified: April 24, 2023

Policies & Procedures

Policies serve as the governing tenets of the school district. District policies are most often created for three main reasons:

In response to state or federal laws,
In light of legal precedents established by court decisions, and
As a means of defining best practices that relate to issues of local concern.

The Parts of a Policy

Policy

A Policy is the Board’s statement of belief, conviction, and expectation of a given issue as it relates to school district governance. A policy will most often be relatively brief, clear statement about the Board’s position on an issue. It may also direct the development of “procedures.” The board approves all policies and significant revisions.

Procedure

A Procedure may be developed as an extension of a policy. While not all policies will have procedures, many do. The procedure is essentially an outline of the main implementation points related to the policy. Procedures are developed by administration and approved by District Council, with the board being made aware of procedure creation.

Form

A Form will be found occasionally throughout the online Policy Handbook. Forms are related to a given policy as something that may require an application process, authorization, and/or documentation. As with procedures, Forms are developed by administrators and approved by District Council.

Policy Summary

1000: Board of Education

This series contains statements of the Board’s purpose and provisions for matters such as induction of Board members, inservice development of Board members, code of ethics for the Board as a group and individually, and the Board’s attitude toward policy development. The Board’s intent makes a great deal of difference in what it ultimately does and how it does it

2000: Administration and District Planning

This series focuses on the administrative machinery at the executive level. Here is recorded the Board’s action in activating all administrative and supervisory jobs to the extent that the Board has that function under the law. In addition, you will find the organizational chart.

3000: Students

This series focuses upon the Student, not the educational process. He/she must be admitted, data about him/her, his/her parents, and his/her place of residence recorded; a place in a school assigned, and so on. These are the challenges of student personnel administration.

4000: Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment

This series contains policies related to all aspects of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. Included are the goals of the schools, curricular matters, instructional arrangements to assist teachers in teaching and students with learning, as well as provisions for individual differences and exceptional children.

5000: Personnel

This series contains all the familiar topics of personnel, administration, recruitment and selection, contracts, tenure, assignment and transfer until the time of separation from the school system through retirement, resignation, promotion, death or other causes, except as otherwise covered through collective bargaining agreements.

6000: Finance and Operations

This series contains policies and regulations for the management of money: revenues, expenditures, budget development, purchasing, record-keeping, etc. This series also addresses the non-instructional services necessary for maintenance and operation of the District, such as transportation and food services, and with certain fixed expenses. School facilities management and construction are also found in this series.

7000: Community

This series addresses the school system’s external relations with mass media communication, Parent-Teacher organizations, citizen’s committees, complaints concerning school personnel, community use of school buildings, other governmental and private groups concerned with education, and the like.