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NEW ULM-- The New Ulm Public School Board hit the books at Thursday's work session as they reviewed changes to the handbooks for each school.
The study session marked the first for Sean Koster, who is taking over as superintendent . The first order of business was to listen to the changes made to the school handbooks by high school principal Mark Bergmann, middle school principal Michelle Miller, and elementary school principal Denise Einck.
Two main changes made by Bergmann revolved around truancy and retakes. He recommends students have unlimited state excused absences and seven parental excused absences. The previous policy stated students could only have nine state or parental excused absences before absences were considered unexcused.
State excused absences include medical reasons such as illness or appointments for medical, dental, orthodontic, or counseling; family emergencies; death, serious illness, or funeral of an immediate family member; a condition requiring treatment for a mental health diagnosis; and receiving religious instruction.
After seven parent excused absences, they would be considered unexcused if a parent calls a student out of school without a reason. Three unexcused absences will start the truancy process, and seven will identify the student as being truant.
Bergmann also removed the provision stating students would lose credit after their excuse limit is exceeded. He said the school board does not wish to make student punishment the focus of the absences policy.
"Our focus is going to be on the truancy side of it," Bergmann said. "Getting the system to help find out what the problem is and getting the kids to school without that great of a penalty [is our focus]."
Re-takes will be graded differently as well. The former policy for basic level classes said students could re-take their assessments with a possibility of a 75% improvement in their grade from their first attempt. The new policy would see students eligible for 10% improvement in their grade up to a 92% final score. This falls in line with the policy for students who take AP and Honors level classes.
Changes to the middle school handbook consisted of firming up their policies on cell phone use and food delivery.
Miller said the phone policy seeks to address students being on their phones and using the excuse a parent giving them important information. Parents will be advised to give any information a student needs to know to the office and the student will be called down.
The food policy is being changed after a student ordered a pizza and had it delivered to the school. While parents can still bring their kids outside food, kids cannot themselves order food to the building due to safety concerns.
Einck addressed changing the cell phone policy to be in line with the other schools. She is also looking to ban students possessing digital cameras and other recording devices. The elementary school will also send students home if they are sleeping for more than an hour and refuse to get up.
"We determined if the kids are sleeping for more than an hour, it’s time to go home and we’re doing things within that hour," Einck said. "A priority is every five minutes a timer set is logged, we'll verbally prompt or give a little [prod] and they’re not waking up. We can’t have staff sitting there for a day with the kids. After an hour we call parents [for the child] to go home for the rest of the day."
As the principal for the Washington Learning Center was absent, Koster read through the changes in their handbook with nothing major to report.
These changes will be voted on at the next school board meeting Thursday, July 27 at 5 p.m.in the district boardroom, 414 South Payne Street.