Preface-1
PREFACE
The policies and administrative rules of
the Kalkaska Public Schools’ Board of Education are the result of a combined
effort of the professional staff of the Michigan Association of School
Boards, the Board of Education and the
District's staff.
The staff of MASB has written the policy
and rule model and integrated into that model the policies and procedures being
used in the District at the time of the first draft. Upon completion of the first draft, a MASB staff member and
selected staff members of the District edited all of the proposed policies and
rules resulting in preparation of a second draft to be presented to the
Board. The Board and administration
consulted with the MASB staff members and selected staff members to arrive at
the final draft. This final draft was
then adopted by the Board.
A special acknowledgment should go to
the Board members who spent many hours studying the various drafts of these
policies and rules.
Understanding
the Policy System
Policies are principles adopted
by the Board to chart a course of action.
They tell WHAT is wanted and also may include WHY and HOW MUCH. They are broad enough to indicate a line of
action to be taken by the administration in meeting a number of problems day
after day; they should be narrow enough to give the administration clear
guidance.
RULES, REGULATIONS OR PROCEDURES
are the detailed directions that are developed by the administration and staff
to put policy into practice. They tell
HOW, WHEN, WHERE and BY WHOM things are to be done. They are not adopted by the Board, but, rather, are allowed to be
changed, as needed, by the administration to meet the needs of day-to-day
policy enforcement and administration of the schools.
Preface-2
This philosophy was incorporated into
the thinking that produced the model and guided the Board and the District's
staff in developing the final, adopted policies and review of rules.
There is one binder containing nine
sections of policies. These sections
are as follows:
1000 — BOARD BYLAWS
2000 — ADMINISTRATION
3000 — FISCAL MANAGEMENT
4000 — BUSINESS MANAGEMENT/FACILITIES
5000 — PERSONNEL
6000 — NEGOTIATIONS
7000 — INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM
8000 — STUDENTS
9000 — PUBLIC & ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONS
This type of classification system is
designed for computer use and conforms to sound principles of information
storage and retrieval; to sound principles of school governance; and to the
mandates of practicality. The system’s
ultimate success or failure will depend on the extent of its day-to-day
usefulness as a management tool to facilitate school and Board operations.
Basic to the system is the vocabulary of
policy development descriptors. This
vocabulary includes more than 1,000 discrete terms, e.g., “Underground
Newspapers,” “Psychological Testing,” “Nepotism,” etc. These terms set forth specific issues and
concerns for possible school Board action at the policy development level.
Preface-3
The index is designed to help the user
find the subject described in the appropriate policy.
The index also includes many terms not
used in the classification system but are still cross-referenced to official
descriptors. Some of these topics are
synonyms, e.g., Administrative Regulations, see “Administrative
Rules.” Other classifications are
included to show where topics might be placed into the system by local
classifiers, e.g., Jury Duty, see “Leaves and Absences.”
In addition, major descriptors appear in
several places in the index. This,
again, is to facilitate the user’s search for correct term placement in the
system.
When
Using This Manual
To use this manual properly, the reader
should look up the subject matter in the index and turn to the policy section
first. The reader should check the
table of contents found in the front of each policy section to determine
whether the desired subject is cross-referenced to any other policy and also to
see if the symbols “Cf.,” “Also” or “See” are present. The reader should turn to the numeric code
in the appropriate section and read the policy. After the reader has done this, he/she should read all
cross-references and other similar referrals. Administrative rules follow
directly behind corresponding policy and are denoted by ‘R.’
If by chance a policy statement is not
found, one of three things has occurred:
(1) the Board does not have a policy or rule on the subject; (2) another
classification (Cf.) is overriding and should be read to determine the Board’s
policy; or (3) the code is consolidated with another code. This latter statement makes it incumbent on
the reader to check the index and/or the table of contents before
looking for the subject matter.
Preface-4
There will be times when a policy does
not have a rule. If this occurs, the
reader must assume that the Board felt the policy was self-executing and did
not need an implementing rule.
You will note that the numeric code with
the policy title always appears in the upper left hand margin. Note that the numeric code is also printed
in the upper right margin, this will help the reader to “thumb” through the
pages and find a particular page much more easily. The reader will also note that multi-paged policies and rules are
now numbered which will assist in keeping pages in order. Policy paging is illustrated, for example,
as: 2550, 2550-2. Corresponding administrative rules contain the same number
plus an ‘R’. There is no symbol for
page one on any policy or rule. Pages
of the manual are not numbered sequentially.
This is done to avoid the need to totally renumber the entire manual in
the event of the addition or deletion of a page.
State Law and Negotiated Contracts
These policies are designed to contain little
or no statutory language or negotiated contract language. They exist in other, separate documents. If the reader is in doubt about the subject
being pursued, he/she should ask the Superintendent or some other
administrative staff member for guidance.
Updating
Your Policy Book
The District should have one person,
usually the Board Secretary, Clerk of the Board or Superintendent, to insert
new or changed policy in the Board policy book. This should be done within seven days of Board action on new or
changed policy, and the old policy page placed in the historical record copy of
Board policy. The practice of having
several different people adding or deleting pages in the District's policy book
increases the possibility of error and thus decreases the efficient use of the
policy book.
Preface-5
Symbols
The policy classification system employs
these signs and symbols which are explained below.
SN Scope
Note — A brief statement used when necessary in order to clarify and/or limit
the intended use of a descriptor entry:
Administrative Personnel
SN For school management and supervisory personnel below the District Superintendent level, e.g.,
Also A prefix to a parenthetical code to indicate that the identical term
(and similar school Board policy) appears elsewhere
in the classification system, e.g.,
1370 (Also 9110) Public
Participation
9110 (Also 1370) Public
Participation
Cf. A
prefix used to indicate a cross reference to another policy or rule of similar subject matter, e.g.,
4080 (Cf., 8620) Emergency
Closings
8620 (Cf., 4080) Emergency
Drills
See A prefix to a parenthetical number code to
indicate the preceding code is consolidated with referenced code in the
parentheses, e.g.,
2560 (See 2470)
Preface-6
Definitions
1. All LEGAL REF. (Legal References) are
placed at the end of the policy, not after the -R or rule portion.
2. LEGAL REF. include:
a) The
Revised School Code
b) Laws
Relating to Education, February 1990 (or later)
c) Administrative Rules Relating to Education,
November 1989 (or later)
d) OAG – Attorney General opinions
e) MCL – Michigan Compiled Law
f) USCA - U.S. Code Annotated
g) CFR – Code of Federal Regulations
h) MDE
- Michigan Department of
Education Booklets or Guidelines