The Jefferson City School Board Policy Committee gave initial approval to several policy updates stemming from new legislation, district updates or Missouri School Boards' Association clarifications.
Among the updates are policy BDDL, which clarifies that the district's custodian of records -- in Jefferson City's case, the board secretary -- is responsible for retaining district records and providing them upon request unless they are closed records. It also clarifies a school board member does not have greater access to district records than any other member of the public.
Policy DB removes a statement requiring a hearing before adopting the budget and tax rate, stating in the explanation that "there is no legal requirement to hold a hearing before budget adoption" although the hearing is required before adopting a tax rate, which is covered under a different policy.
Policy JHG, in alignment with the passage of SB 681, requires that all allegations of child abuse go through the Children's Division, rather than a school district investigation. The policy requires the district follow the same standard for reporting sexual misconduct as all other forms of abuse.
The policy committee also gave initial approval to a change in policy allowing five days of bereavement leave instead of two for the death of a spouse, child or someone living in the household.
Under proposed policy changes in policy GBEBC, the district would not be able to forgo a criminal background check of a potential employee to use a background check offered by a previous employer district. The district would have to do its own background check, which would allow the district to catch any crimes committed after the previous check.
The committee gave initial approval to those policy changes, voting to take them to the board at the March meeting.