Note: These minutes should be considered preliminary until they are approved at the next Policy and Amendment Committee meeting.
———————————————————————————————————————
Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) Policy and Amendment Committee
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Regular meeting 2:00 pm
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) WSESD/U Staff and Administrators present: Superintendent Mark Speno (MS), Mo Hart (MH), Bethany Bechard (BB), Shannon Kelly (SK), Michaela Simms (MSimms, via zoom)
Additional Board members present: Tim Maciel (TM)
Guests: Liz Adams (via zoom)
Call to Order
DS convened the meeting at 2:00 p.m. and recited the hybrid statement.
I. Approval of Minutes and confirmation of next meeting date
The minutes of 5/21/25 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 next meetings are scheduled for:
June 11
June 25
II. Updates
DS noted that Colleen Savage has withdrawn from the Policy and Amendment Committee, due to scheduling conflicts. DS and AB are the two Board members on the committee.
DS will add Rachel Olmstead to the agenda for second meeting in June.
III. Policies
Gender Freedom in Schools
Update from MS: the lawyer specializing in gender identity law in schools is still looking at the draft. The estimated turnaround time was two weeks, so an update should be coming soon.
Gender Freedom is OH HOLD awaiting feedback from legal review.
Proposed Policy: Superintendent Evaluation and Contract Negotiation
The committee reviewed the policy and corrected a few minor issues in wording. The proposed survey questions for staff will be removed from the policy and filed with the other survey questions used by the Board. Further legal review was not considered necessary; Pietro reviewed a recent draft of the proposed policy and changes made since then do not seem to have legal implications.
With these edits in place, the policy will go to the SU for a first reading at their June meeting.
F37 District Equity Policy
The committee reviewed the policy and made small edits for clarity and consistency. Additional edits include:
● 3rd bullet under Definitions: State directly that “Equity is different from equality.”
● 8th bullet under Implementation: Delete “ensuring alignment with EQS expectations.” It will be law as of July 1, and that law may change.
● Final sentence: Change “annual status report” to “periodic status reports.”
F37 is on HOLD to review with edits at the next meeting on 6/11/25.
F5 Searches, Seizures, and Interrogation of Students By Law Enforcement Personnel or Other Non-School Personnel
F5 was readopted last August, but the committee is revisiting the policy due to concerns that it may conflict with the District’s Commitment to Student Safety statement for students with immigration status.
The committee discussed several potentially problematic areas in F5:
● Second paragraph under Searches and Seizures: “proper warrant.”
o The committee reviewed the differences between an administrative warrant and a judicial warrant. Proposed new wording: “duly executed judicial warrant.”
● Second paragraph under Searches and Seizures: “However, there are exceptions to the warrant requirement, and it will be up to the officer to determine whether a warrant is needed in the circumstances.”
o The committee proposed striking this line and asking legal to review it.
● Second paragraph under Interrogation: “Non-school personnel may also question students under the age of eighteen without notification of parents/caregivers if such questioning (1)… or (2) concerns possible criminal activity by the parent or caregiver.”
o The committee questioned why this “(2)” clause was in the policy and if it legally needed to be there. This question had been raised at an earlier meeting as well and no resolution was reached.
● Third paragraph under Interrogation: “If school officials have not requested the assistance…”
o For clarity, the committee proposed rewording this paragraph, starting with “No questioning by non-school personnel…” and making a bulleted list of exceptions.
● First paragraph under Arrest, first sentence: “If a law enforcement officer presents reasonable grounds for the arrest of a student or a subpoena…”
o The committee discussed changing “reasonable grounds” to “duly executed judicial warrant” but did not agree on that edit, given the potential of an urgent situation (e.g. reports on social media that a student brought a gun to school) where a judicial warrant would not be available. Instead, the term “duly executed judicial warrant” was added to the sentence: “…officer presents a duly executed judicial warrant or reasonable grounds for the arrest…”
● First paragraph under Arrest, second sentence: “Before releasing a student to law enforcement authorities under these circumstances, school officials shall ask for proper identification and require the officer to sign a form indicating the reason for the removal of the student from school.”
o The committee proposed rewording the sentence to include that there needs to be photographic identification of the officer: “…shall record the officer’s identifying information and require a photograph of face and badge…”
The committee looked back at the minutes from the last time this policy was discussed (March 12, 2025) and was reminded of their intention to add an addendum to F5 to specifically address concerns about ICE. This will be revisited at the next meeting.
F5 in relation to students with immigration status is ON HOLD until June 11. The committee will review edits and discuss wording for an addendum at that meeting.
C8 Board Relations with School Personnel
The committee continued its discussion of C8 in a divided debate.
DS reminded the committee that one of the key issues under discussion last week was the chain of communication: If a Board member has a concern with school personnel, that member should alert the Chair of the Board, the Chair goes to Superintendent, and the Superintendent takes it from there.
TM noted that tone means everything and he felt that the tone of C8 was distrustful and reflected a value of hierarchy that was a little extreme. The policy does not promote Board communication and collegiality with staff members.
Several concerns were at play in this discussion, including:
● The role of individual Board members when they are out in the community or visiting schools. They represent themselves as individuals, not the full Board, but they always have the title of being a Board member. Are there situations when staff or community members might not understand the distinction?
● District’s values with regards to communication. To what degree does the District value open communication among Board members, admin, and staff? What boundaries need to be in place? Can Board members be trusted to communicate in a professional manner? How much needs to be laid out in policy for new Board members? How does the District support collegial Board-staff communication?
● Boundaries on communication. F8 prohibition against Board members discussing contractual issues with school staff seemed clear, but its prohibition against discussing curricular issues was questioned. For example, is a Board member not allowed to ask a teacher what they think about the new EL curriculum? Complaints/concerns about curriculum should go through the hierarchy of the designated chain of communication. TM had sent the committee a proposed rewrite for C7, and the first paragraph was brought in to C8.
● “The Windham Southeast School District Board values frequent, open, respectful, and transparent communication among Board members, school administrators, and teaching staff. We believe that a spirit of partnership and mutual respect strengthens our collective ability to support student success for all students. This policy is intended to foster productive, collegial, and professional relationships while clarifying roles and responsibilities.”
● This warm and cozy introduction supports collegiality and promotes Board-staff communication, while the policy highlights the boundaries that need to be kept in mind.
C8 is ON HOLD until the next meeting on 6/11.
Meeting adjourned at 4:05 pm
Notes taken by Anna Monders (recorder)
Submitted by Anne Beekman (vice chair)
