NEW ULM – A new wave of policy changes from the state legislature and a potential change to space rental charges were approved and considered at Thursday’s School Board meeting.

The drug and alcohol testing policy was changed to address cannabis individually, as laws regarding legal sale and usage come into effect. Medical cannabis cannot be used during the school or work day, and prospective applicants will go through a cannabis test unless their job does not require a commercial driver’s license or face-to-face education with or supervision of children.

Parents who wish to pull their kids out of school for an American Indian cultural practice, observance, ceremony, or presentation will now be allowed to do so. Previously the policy only identified nondescript religious instruction or observance of religious holidays as acceptable reasoning.

The language was changed within applicable policies to change “police liaison” to “school resource” to refer to the School Resource Officer placed within New Ulm Public Schools.

Superintendent Sean Koster said the biggest change made to SROs recently is they will no longer be considered an agent of the school district. This means, while they work with the schools, they will fall under the requirements of police legislation instead of school legislation.

Board member Denny Waloch made the motion to approve these changes, and board member Amanda Groebner seconded.

A first reading was also held for potential changes to fees for school space usage. Currently, youth organizations with 75% or more of their members being School District 88 residents have to pay a fee to use school spaces. This ranges from $15 for the concession stand to $45 for the high school auditorium.

The proposed policy change would make these spaces free for this type of group. The high school stadium/track would be the only outlier, costing $100. Koster said it is not included because of the extra wear it would receive.

“The astroturf track maintenance is more than any other field,” he said. “If we open that one up, I would imagine a lot of people would want to use it for free. Then we would have to do a replacement cycle on the turf a lot more frequently.”

Koster said this change would fit with his philosophy of providing community resources for everyone from the school district because the community helps pay for the schools through taxes. The policy will be decided on at the August 22 School Board meeting.