The district has made updates to a couple policies impacting staff. They’ve been publicizing these updates on their website.

First up is policy GBEBA – STAFF DRESS CODE. This policy has been changed to state that, “Hair coloration must be natural hues.” It’s not clear how a teacher’s hair color impacts a student’s learning environment, though it might make students more comfortable with expressing their inner self…a dangerous thing as far as this board is concerned.

The other policy recently updated is GBEB – STAFF CONDUCT (read previous version here). The district has added this new section:

It is a breach of conduct for an employee to use District or school equipment (including without limitation, computers and District email accounts) to communicate or correspond on behalf of any organization other than the District, including to recruit or schedule meetings for another organization. It shall additionally be a breach of conduct for an employee to use District facilities for any non-District related activities or on behalf of any other organizations unless such use is approved in accordance with Policy KF.

link to source

This seems to be an effort to prevent the local teacher’s union (WPEA) from using district equipment to email teachers and organize meetings. It doesn’t appear to prevent teachers from receiving emails from the WPEA at their district accounts.

The district also updated policy GBK-R1 – GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE. The new policy (link) greatly weakens any recourse teachers have via this policy. There is no longer any arbitration period; there is no longer a grievance committee, the board gets to choose whether or not to review a grievance, and there are no group grievances. Compare that new policy with the previous policy here.