January 7, 2021 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  Strikethrough - delete
Bold/underlined - addition

Rationale: 

5.302 Sick Leave - Page 1, Line 21 states that sick leave for maternity purposes may be taken during the period of physical disability only.  However, this is no longer the case due to a change in state law - teachers can use sick leave for maternity leave purposes if pregnancy is verified by a physician and are no longer limited to taking this leave only during the period of physical disability.  To be in compliance with state law as well as reduce redundancy throughout board policy, TSBA recommends removing this paragraph from this board policy.  Information regarding maternity leave can be found in board policy 5.305.

Rationale: 

5.303 Personal and Professional Leave - State law maintains a list of when approval of the principal is required to take personal leave.  However, the Board’s current policy doesn’t contain this complete list.  We recommend including items (d) and (e) from our model policy to align with what is required per state law.

Rationale: 

5.304 Long Term Leaves of Absence for Professional Personnel - TSBA recommends removing the language regarding FMLA, found at the bottom of page 1 and the top of page 2, as this information is covered under board policy 5.305.

Rationale: 

5.305 Family and Medical Leave - TSBA wanted to make sure the board has an updated version of their model policy regarding FMLA leave.  The model policy has been reorganized for clarity.  Likewise, the Board’s current version maintains some outdated language, such as a teacher may use up to (30) days of accumulated sick leave that is no longer supported by state law.  To ensure that the Board’s policy is clear and aligns with state law, we recommend adopting our model policy.

Rationale:  Lines 8-12 of our old policy speaks to the issuance of a citation by the school principal/resource officer.  If this is referring to principals issuing citations that would result in legal consequences for students (i.e. ultimately be dealt with by law enforcement), then TSBA recommends the Board remove this language from the current policy as this is not something currently provided for under state law.  A law enforcement officer could still issue a citation, but this is something that is required to be dealt with in policy.

Rationale:  A new State Board of Education regulation creates a process for Boards to apply for waivers regarding textbooks and instructional materials.  To take advantage of this, a Board must vote to seek a waiver to use materials that are not included on the list approved by the State Textbook Commission.  TSBA has updated their policy to include a provision on these waivers.

Additionally, TSBA combined model policies 4.400 and 4.401 to clarify the relationship between textbooks and instructional materials.  4.401 will be deleted.

Rationale:  TSBA model policy closely aligns with changes that were made to TCA 49-6-1005.

Rationale:  State law requires boards that have video cameras on buses to adopt a policy that establishes a process to allow parents to view photographs or video footage collected from cameras on school buses.  This law also requires the policy to contain provisions on who will superivse the parents while they view the surveillance footage and how long the photographs or video footage will be maintained by the LEA.  TSBA model policy contains a provision on this.  TSBA recommends adopting this policy to comply with state law.

Rationale:  TSBA has updated the model policy to clarigy which immunization exceptions are available under state law.

Rationale:  TSBA has updated their model policy provision on restraint and isolation with additional information that aligns with state law.