The Fulton Public Schools Board of Education held a special meeting Wednesday night to update school policies. All policy changes were passed, with Andy Bonderer the sole opposing vote.
"This is a normal thing boards do," Superintendent Jacque Cowherd said.
Changes were recommended by board members, lawyers and the Missouri School Boards Association. Some changes were made to clarify policies, while others were meant to keep policies aligned with state legislation. The smallest change was to policy AC, which involved changing an email address.
The school board also introduced a new paragraph of policy about how to handle transcripts of student transferring to the district. Cowherd explained while there was already a standard practice in place, it was not formalized in the policies.
"To bring some clarity to it, we need something written down," school board President Kevin Habjan said.
He proposed a paragraph stating the GPA entered into the system for students transferring to Fulton Public Schools would be determined by letter grade - not percentage - earned in the former school. In cases where students took honors classes, the GPA would be weighted by .6666, just like honors classes at Fulton Public Schools.
"In the state of Texas, they use an ABC system," Habjan said. "Any A student with a 69 percent in a class in a Texas school would receive an F for that grade, but if they earned that grade in Fulton it would have been a D+.
According to Assistant Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Hull, in situations like that, parents would sometimes ask the school to apply Fulton's letter grades because the student would have a higher GPA. However, Fulton's policy is to base the GPA on the sending school's system.
"Wherever the credit was earned, that's the grade they got," Habjan said.
There was also a change to policy GBLB, which involves disclosure of employee records, including disclosure of allegations of sexual misconduct, to other public schools.
The board moved to add language regarding the records of contractors - for example, substitute teachers brought in through Kelly Educational Staffing.
All employees, contractors and agents are now prohibited from writing personal references for individuals whom they have probable cause to believe had engaged in sexual misconduct with a student.
Other policies were also altered during the meeting. The full meeting materials, aside from the revisions to item 9 on page 30 as proposed by Habjan, can be viewed here: bit.ly/2murkdO.
