Bullying issue remains for school board
Electronic transmissions will be added to definition
By Bobbi Mlynar
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
By Bobbi Mlynar
mlynar@emporiagazette.com
The Emporia school board edged closer to crafting a district policy on bullying when it met Wednesday evening in the Mary Herbert Learning Center.
The board has discussed the issue in August and September, and needs only to agree on verbiage for electronic transmissions turn the proposal into policy.
Modifications to board policies have been recommended across the state by the Kansas Association of School Boards. The local board has made most of the recommended changes.
M. Theresa Davidson, associate superintendent for personnel, brought the board three options on Wednesday.
Option 1 set a policy to discourage bullying, including possible suspension and expulsion as disciplinary actions that could be taken.
Option 2 contained the same text as Option 1, plus definitions of behavior that would be considered as bullying.
Those behaviors were:
• physically or mentally harming the student or staff member
• damaging a student’s or staff member’s property
• placing a student or staff member in reasonable fear of harm
• placing a student or staff member in reasonable fear of damage to the student’s or staff member’s property, or
F any other form of intimidation or harassment prohibited in policies adopted by the board of education
Option 3 was including the policy and definition in the student handbook.
Board member Mike Helbert, who also is an attorney, said that he did not believe the definition adequately covered bullying by electronic transmission, often called “cyberbullying.”
“This is the lawyer in me coming out,” he said.
Helbert said he believed students needed to know that bullying also could include “if you’re text-messaging people, if you’re e-mailing people, if you’re threatening bodily harm.”
“I guess in fair play, I want people to know,” he said.
After discussion, the board agreed to include electronic transmissions in the definition of bullying.
Mary Helmer moved that the board accept Option One as board policy and include the definition of bullying in student handbooks, separate from the policy. Angie Schreiber seconded the motion, which passed 5-0. Board members Homer Garza and Glen Strickland were not present at the meeting.
The board will consider the revamped definition at its next meeting on Oct. 10.
School principals reported to the board on the summer school program in the district. Corrective reading and success math programs were used in classes with student-to-teacher ratios of about 5 to 1.
“We’re really trying to continue interventions and that consistency,” said Brian Jordan, principal of Lowther North Intermediate School. “… We really feel like it was a more targeted summer school than it was in years past.”
Children were pre-tested in mathematics and teachers identified skills that needed to be improved and concentrated efforts in those individuals’ areas.
Principal Kim Kirk said that a potential flaw in the data results they anticipate was the lack of a control group for comparison.
“We would like to not have a control group because we want all of those kids doing to summer school,” Kirk said.
Children who are not able to attend summer school – because they go to another parents’ home in the summer, for example – might constitute a small control group.
Jordan said that approximately the lower 10 percent of students should be in summer school, and that staff works to encourage parents to enroll their children in summer classes.
“We spend a lot of time in the spring making phone calls to parents who haven’t returned slips,” Jordan said.
Staff looks at district-wide scores to determine which students most need the additional help, rather than taking scores on a school-by-school basis. In that way, the students with the lowest scores have the highest priority for summer school, no matter which school they attend.
When questioned whether the district could require youngsters to attend those classes, Superintendent John Heim said that board policy allows the district to require summer school or after-school attendance, and truancy can be filed if a child does not attend.
Kirk said that two truancy cases were filed in the summer of 2006 against parents who refused to cooperate.
“Their excuse was, ‘No we choose not to,’ and they were being pretty defiant about it,” Kirk said. “In those cases, we did make contact to file truancy.”
The student count for 2007 non-enrichment summer school classes was: kindergarten through third grade, 248; fourth through sixth, 170; seventh and eighth, 241, and ninth through 12th, 244.
The district offered 27 sections of literacy and 21 sections of mathematics in grades kindergarten through third, and 26 sections of literacy and 19 sections of mathematics in grades four through six.
Staff members received special training at sessions prior to summer classes. They also were asked to provide feedback and recommendations “because they’re the ones whose rubber hits the road,” Kirk said.
The board approved a request for a grant application to finance the YouthFriends program.
Margi Grimwood, coordinator of Safe and Drug Free Schools, said that she wanted to submit the application for $85,532 from the Governor’s discretionary portion of the Federal Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act.
Grimwood said she had increased the request from last year’s $62,830 application to allow a part-time prevention specialist to be hired full-time.
YouthFriends is a school-based mentoring program that brings in community members to help students in academics, special interests, or by simply being a “buddy” or adult role model. Mentors meet with the children for one-half hour each week.
Board member Mike Crouch, who is director of Emporians for Drug Awareness, abstained from voting because of a potential conflict of interest.