Note: These minutes should be considered preliminary until they are approved at the next Policy
and Amendment Committee meeting.
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Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) Policy and Amendment Committee
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Regular meeting 2:00 p.m.
Hybrid meeting: WSESU Central Office, 53 Green St., Brattleboro, VT and
Remotely via Zoom
DRAFT MINUTES
Policy and Amendment Committee members present: Deborah Stanford (DS, Chair), Anne Beekman (AB)
Other Board members present: Tim Maciel (via zoom)
WSESD/U Staff and Administrators present: Superintendent Mark Speno (MS), Bethany Bechard (BB), Rebecca Olmstead (RO), Susan Grabowski (SG)
Guests: Liz Adams (via zoom)
Call to Order
DS convened the meeting at 2:10 p.m. and read the hybrid statement.
Approval of Minutes and confirmation of next meeting date
The minutes of 6/11/25 meeting approved by assent.
The Policy and Amendment Committee meets on second and fourth Wednesdays, from 2-4 pm at the WSESU Central Office and on Zoom. The committee will not meet in July. The next meeting is scheduled for:
August 13
Updates
Gender Freedom in Schools: There is a call being scheduled for Thursday with the specialist lawyer who has reviewed the proposed policy.
DS forwarded two emails from the VSBA regarding legislative updates. Several policy issues are coming our way, as well as changes to Open Meeting law.
Policies
Proposed Asthma Friendly Schools Policy
Rebecca Olmstead and Susan Grabowski
RO has proposed that the Board consider adopting an Asthma Friendly Schools policy. The nursing team has a respiratory health management procedure which involves coordination among many different entities, including school nurses, pediatricians, medical director, and facilities.
Although there is a supportive workplace environment, as seen in a recent situation when fragrances triggered a staff member’s asthma, RO felt that the backing of a Board-approved policy would provide firm grounding to support positive actions.
The committee was initially hesitant about the need for such a policy if the work was already being done, but following a discussion, DS decided to move forward with the proposed policy, noting that it is about empowerment.
An initial set of edits were made to the draft document from RO:
–adjusted references to WSESU (e.g. WSESU nurses District nurses)
–deleted section on Environmental Trigger management — MS suggested that the policy not get into listing too many details
–defined UAP on first instance of use
–RO will send definition for ANA and a source for citation
Proposed Asthma Policy ON HOLD until 8/13 to review with edits.
E11 Federal Child Nutrition Act Wellness Policy
Rebecca Olmstead and Susan Grabowski
E11 was last adopted in 2019 with the merger. RO brought E11 forward, indicating that there is a
need to update wording in the policy. Her team has made some suggested edits, but that version
was not attached to the agenda. The committee will come back to this policy at the next meeting.
E11 is ON HOLD until 8/13 to review suggested edits from RO.
RO and SG have been invited to the August 13 meeting to continue the discussion of both the
proposed asthma policy and E11 Nutrition policy.
F5 Searches, Seizures, and Interrogation of Students by Law Enforcement Personnel or Other Non-School Personnel
The committee reviewed edits to F5 and made a few additional changes to the last section, including:
–changed the section heading name to “Student rights”
–reordered the paragraphs so that it flows in this order:
1) In its continued commitment to the protection of student privacy…
2) Consistent with the rule of law, WSESD honors valid judicial warrants…
3) The Board affirms that certificated District employees have the academic freedom…
4) WSESD is committed to protecting our students’ rights… –reworded the new paragraph 4 to serve as a concluding statement
There is some concern that the new sentence “The officer shall allow school personnel to photograph the officer’s face…” (page 2, added last meeting) would meet with resistance on the ground, but it has been left in the document.
F5 is ON HOLD until 8/13 to review again before sending to Pietro.
F37 District Equity Policy
Committee reviewed F37 and made a few minor edits, including:
–changed “creating” to “providing” in the 4th bullet in the definition of equity
–in that same section, moved “acknowledging and disrupting inequitable practices” to the end of the bullet for better flow
TM suggested that the policy should mention:
–community oversight
–Board oversight
–grievance procedures if equity goals are not met
–sufficient district funding for equity efforts
–student advisory councils (what do students think about this?)
–diverse hiring practices / culturally representative staff
DS noted that Board oversight is true for every policy, as is welcoming student input. The grievance procedures would be the same as for any other policy.
The committee decided that the Resource Allocation bullet under implementation covered the question of funding and that community oversight could be folded into the inclusive engagement bullet.
Diverse hiring practices will be added as a second clause in the inclusive engagement bullet: “The District will continue to hire with respect to providing culturally representative staff.”
With those changes in place, F37 will go for a first reading at the August 12 Board meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 4:01 p.m.
Notes taken by Anna Monders (recorder)
Submitted by Anne Beekman (vice chair)
