Board advances bereavement policy

WORLAND — The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees advanced one policy on second reading and approved two other policies on third and final reading Monday night.

The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees approved on second reading a bereavement leave clause to the professional staff leave policy. Currently, full-time staff must use annual leave days for bereavement, weddings or other life events.

Under the proposed bereavement clause, employees will be able to convert three of the current year’s sick leave days for bereavement. Bereavement leave may be used for immediate family, as with the sick leave, but it also adds siblings specifically for bereavement.

Superintendent David Nicholas said the only comments he has received is from grateful employees appreciative of the change.

Third and final reading will be in January.

The board also approved on third and final reading Monday:

•A new student data privacy and security policy. Nicholas said language to have the policy also apply to tier 2 and tier 3 volunteers was added on third reading after the question arose last month during the second reading.

Legislation approved by the Wyoming Legislature in March requires each district has a student data privacy policy in place by Jan. 1.

•Changes to the seclusion and restraint policy on second reading. Educational Resource Center and Special Education Director Kim Sanford said in an earlier meeting that they removed language that specifically referenced the protocol or evidence-based training program so that the policy would not have to be changed each time the district changed programs.

During discussion, board member and former teacher Dean Dupree presented scenario he was involved in many years ago as a teacher in which he witnessed a student hit another student and was about to hit the student again when he put the student in a head lock to prevent him from harming the student if that would be allowed under the policy.

He wondered if that would be allowed under the policy.

Nicholas said, “The way we train everyone is there’s two threshholds, we have to act and we have to act now, that’s threat to self and threat to others. We don’t train everyone in safe holds. We teach everyone in de-escalation and we teach everyone least-restrictive everything. If your head lock was the most gentle approach you could use at that time, I would have said ‘that’s how we had to do that because you were in a situation where you were worried about injury to others.”

In other business Monday, the board:

•Heard a presentation by Chief Washakie FFA members Siobhan Myers, Hunter Elliott and Meg DeBolt on the trip to the national convention in October in Indianapolis, Indiana, that included some educational stops along the way.

•Elected officers with Don Bryant remaining chair, Dave Tommerup elected vice chair, Terri Logan secretary and Duane Whitlock treasurer.

•Hired Doug Denecke as a district bus driver.

•Hired Shawn Ivie as an indoor track coach due to the number of athletes expected to come out for the sport after the holiday break.

•Approved the high school fall coaches for the 2018 school year with the same roster as the 2017 fall season.

Board member Anna Venable said she was pleased to see the consistency in the coaching.

•Set meeting dates for 2018, on the fourth Monday of each month at 7 p.m. except in December with the meeting moved to the third Monday of the month to avoid meeting on Dec. 24.

•Approved an out-of-state trip for two students who have qualified for All-Northwest Choir.

Prior to adjournment, the board recessed into executive/closed session for a legal issue and for the annual superintendent evaluation.