Cd’A school trustees approve policies in lockstep
COEUR d’ALENE — Trustees were in alignment Monday evening, unanimously approving several policies and a land acquisition resolution during a regular meeting of the Coeur d’Alene school board.
It was the third reading for the Student Dress Policy, on which the board focused during its Dec. 4 workshop following several months of input from teachers and students and special efforts by members of the district’s Student Advisory Group.
After the enforcement piece was found to be vague regarding implementation, Vice Chair Casey Morrisroe worked with Lake City High School ASB President and SAG President Luke Sharon, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Trent Derrick and Canfield Middle School Principal Nick Lilyquist to iron out details and bring back to the board a draft with two different enforcement options with more specificity and fewer redundancies than in the previous draft.
“Once I called Principal Lilyquist and said, ‘OK, walk me through this, what’s this look like in your building?’ and in Option A it says the administrator will notify a parent or guardian,” Morrisroe said.
He said Lilyquist informed him it just would not be possible to notify of every single dress code violation, as teachers deal with students in the moment and the students move along to their next classes.
“As we re-worked it, it’s really that the notification’s at the principal’s discretion when it’s egregious or when it’s repetitive, those sorts of things,” Morrisroe said.
Trustee Heather Tenbrink asked Sharon his thoughts and whether the updated proposed policy met the spirit of what the Student Advisory Group was hoping to accomplish by taking on the policy.
“I think it does,” Sharon said. “I don’t think that from anyone’s perspective on Student Advisory Group we wanted a broad policy that made it easy for people to go against it. I think ultimately, what Casey proposed was valuable.”
Morrisroe made the motion to approve the updated draft dress code policy, which was seconded by Trustee Allie Anderton and approved unanimously by the four board members in attendance. Trustee Lesli Bjerke was absent from the meeting.
The board also approved a policy supporting students with characteristics of dyslexia and accepted a new policy required by the Idaho School Boards Association regarding the treatment of opioid overdoses to make available in any school the superintendent deems appropriate either naloxone, also marketed as Narcan, or other opioid antagonists as permitted by Idaho Code.
The proposed policy on parental rights was recently out for public comment and went before the board for a second reading. The state-required policy says the Coeur d’Alene School District recognizes parents/guardians are the primary caretakers of and decision-makers for their children and that parents/guardians know best the health and wellbeing needs of their children. The policy states that parents/guardians are to notify the school if a student is experiencing a physical, emotional or mental health issue, and school staff members are expected to notify parents if they become aware of an evident or impactful change with a student.
“It’s putting into policy something teachers have done for hundreds of years,” Morrisroe said.
The policy was approved after the board included language that the policy would not supersede or replace child abuse reporting as mapped out in the district’s abused and neglected child reporting policy.
In other news, a resolution approved by the board during the meeting will move the district forward with a 20-acre, $4.4 million land acquisition in the northeast corner of the upcoming Coeur Terre development off Hanley Avenue and the yet-to-be-built Coeur Terre Boulevard. Operations Director Jeff Voeller said this project offers a unique opportunity for the district.
“I think this is a big moment,” he said.
The transaction will be scheduled to close on or before Dec. 30. No timeline is yet in place regarding a bond decision to build a school on that site. The district’s long-range planning committee will bring recommendations before the board in June 2024. Funds for the site come from the sales of the old Hayden Lake School on Government Way, which once housed the Northwest Expedition Academy, and the former 10-acre soccer complex behind Hayden Meadows Elementary School.
"We are excited to finalize this transaction and set the district up for future needs," Voeller told The Press.
This was the last official board session for Morrisroe, who has served on the school board for eight years. He was recognized by Chair Rebecca Smith as well as his wife and daughters, who attended the meeting with signs celebrating their dad and his accomplishments for the school district.
Sharon
Voeller