School board sets policy on snow days, library challenges and “teaching controversial issues”
The Albany County School Board wrapped up three policies Wednesday. Stay-at-home snow days can now be used for virtual education and teachers need to use “an academic lens” for hot-button topics.
Albany County School District No. 1 has updated its policy on teaching controversial issues and implemented a new policy allowing snow days to count as school days.
The Albany County School Board passed these policies on third and final reading during its meeting Wednesday, bringing to a close several months of work and discussion on each.
The board approved three policies this week:
The board unanimously approved all of these policies in less than four minutes Wednesday, having workshopped them in previous meetings and work sessions. Policies 3005 and 3015 were tabled during the board’s meeting last month when the district received more public feedback than expected and wanted more time for workshopping. Trustee Janice Marshall said the policies as written are solid, but the board shouldn’t be afraid to work on them more in the future.
“What we have to remember is if we adopt this, try this, find out that we need to make some changes to it, we can always come back and put the policy through the process again to make those adjustments,” she said.
Policy 3005: How to teach controversial ideas
This policy outlines how teachers should approach classroom discussions about “controversial issues” — in other words, any topic “that has publicly evoked opposing viewpoints or any subject that arises in the classroom on which members of the classroom group express strong bias.”
The policy requires the district to defend a student’s right to study such issues. It also directs teachers to present topics “through an academic lens” — a phrase that replaces old language about teaching topics in a manner “void of partisanship and bias.”
“The teacher is the most important member of the school staff in the actual handling of controversial issues,” the policy states. “Teachers have the obligation to deal with such issues in a professional manner. The issues should grow naturally out of the regular classroom learning situations, should be appropriate to the subject taught, should align with content standards for the course/grade level, and may include topics that arise spontaneously. As many viewpoints and data as possible should be brought out in the discussion.”
The policy also sets a clear expectation of parental involvement.
“Teachers will communicate to parents, in a timely manner, of any controversial issues that will be discussed and allow parents time to preview content,” the policy states. “Parents/Students are responsible for communicating with the teacher whether an alternative assignment is needed.”
There were no substantial changes between the version presented during the February board meeting and the version passed this week.
Policy 3015: How to handle library book challenges
This policy outlines how the district will field and respond to challenges brought by parents or other community members about books or media in the district’s various school libraries.
According to the policy, when a parent wants to bring a complaint about the inclusion of a particular book in their child’s school library, they must first meet with the school’s principal. If the issue is not resolved during that conversation, they can fill out and submit a “citizen’s complaint” form, which will be sent to the assistant superintendent and each school board member. At that point, the principal and the superintendent will form a committee of interested parties. That committee will include “professional staff, the complainant, students (if applicable) and community members” and will be tasked with making a final decision.
The makeup of that committee garnered some debate during the school board’s March 1 work session. Trustee Emily Siegel Stanton suggested that “students (if applicable)” be replaced with “representatives from the Youth Advisory Council” when the complaint is about a book in the high school library.
“At the high school level, it is their library, and I think they should have a voice about materials that are being questioned,” she said.
But Trustee Marshall said the “if applicable” language gives the district flexibility when it comes down to who should be included on the committee.
“I don’t want to be too prescriptive about naming what the group is because that can change, and it has changed over the years,” Marshall said.
Trustee Nate Martin suggested more general language such as “representatives of the student body,” but Chair Kim Sorenson said the board had to be careful about changing the intent of the policy on third reading — something that could send the trustees back to the drawing board.
The intent, however, is clearly to include students in any final decision, according to statements made by trustees and administrators.
“At the high school, I think there should always be a student on that committee,” Superintendent John Goldhardt said.
Ultimately, the policy was left basically as-is — with one small change. At a suggestion from Martin, the single “student (if applicable)” was changed to “students (if applicable)” to make clear that the committee should include student representatives — rather than simply the student who brought the complaint if indeed the complaint process was initiated by a student.
Policy 3016: How to weather the bad weather days
The third policy approved Wednesday would let local schools go virtual for the day — eliminating the need for an extra day in June.
The district can now declare an “inclement weather day” or a “temporary virtual education day” in the event of a blizzard, facility maintenance issues or public health emergencies. In the past, these days would have been traditional snow days, with no expectation for students to complete coursework from home.
The downside to this is that it requires the district to make up that lost time by tacking on extra days wherever it can — usually at the end of the spring semester. That means keeping schools open longer, which is expensive and potentially unpopular with teachers and students.
Policy 3016 saw some initial pushback during its first reading in January from trustees who felt it would be unfair to require students to work from home during what was once a day off .
“Snow days used to be this surprise and a break from the routine and our stress,” Trustee Siegel Stanton said at the time. “And (with) all the research out about unstructured time for kids and taking the pressure off of kids, I cannot imagine asking a kid, on a snow day, instead of making cookies or playing with their friends or sledding, to sit in front of a computer.”
But several trustees were “warming to the policy” on second reading last month as Goldhardt highlighted that these temporary virtual days would be rarely used, that the district would still have the option to call a more traditional no-work snow day, and that it’s a good idea to check in with students on days they’re not in school, getting school lunches, because it might be important to bring those students food.
On third reading Wednesday, the policy ultimately passed with a unanimous vote.