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BoE primps uniform dress code
Budget cuts, layoff policies also discussed
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The Liberty County School Board adopted an updated version of its student dress code policy for the 2010-11 school year during a mid-month meeting on Wednesday, along with accepting revisions to personnel-related policies and adopting minutes from previous meetings.
“We know it’s not easy to enforce a dress code policy because the students don’t want to [follow] it…even first-graders don’t want to follow it,” board Chairwoman Lily Baker said to the audience.
After an earlier meeting with school leadership on concerns with aspects of the dress code and a final consensus on the outcome, Assistant Superintendent Mary Alexander noted in her presentation of the revised dress code that elementary principals and assistant principals will not make changes to the elementary code.
Middle and high school principals and assistant principals are implementing the following additions: uniforms cannot be tight or body hugging; belts can be white in addition to previously approved colors; tights and socks may be navy in addition to previously approved colors; and newly enrolled students now have 10 school days, rather than 15, to prepare for the school dress code policy.
Changes to policies affecting district employees were approved at the meeting, including revisions to the board policy concerning the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. The revisions appear to clarify aspects of the policy, including length of employment and hours worked prior to requesting leave under FMLA and definitions of servicemembers on covered active duty.
The district’s policy entitled GBKA, Professional Personnel Layoff, has been rescinded and replaced with board policy GAKA, Reduction in Force, at the recommendation of the district’s attorney. The RIF policy differs slightly in its language from the previous policy, being more specific on reasons for RIF and RIF procedure.
While Alexander noted to the board that “presently we hope we do not have to RIF any employee; however, we want to make sure our policy is up to date. By accepting the new policy, the board will be provided a little more flexibility in implementing a RIF if it becomes necessary.”
The school board did not make any decisions or provide information on the budget at its meeting. However, members did approve minutes from its March 30 work session, which included the board’s consensus on several budget reductions and recommendations for fiscal year 2011.
Among the reductions and recommendations:
• eliminating 2 ½ days of locally paid sick leave, at just over $1.5 million;
• six furlough days for all employees at an amount eliminated from the budget this year, and not restored for next year, at just over $2.1 million;
• reducing the number of paraprofessionals but retaining kindergarten at one for every two classes, special education, ISS and media, and four to be used at elementary principals’ discretion;
• eliminating the contribution for the local library, at $190,000.
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