Tag Archives: policy

WPSD policy changes affecting staff

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.

Witt modifies Policy GDQA – Support Staff Reduction in Force

Earlier in March, interim Superintendent Ken Witt modified administrative policy GDQA, ‘Support Staff Reduction in Force’. I’m not sure if there’s been any notice to staff of these changes; so far we’ve just depended on sharp-eyed team members. I’ll post the original and modified below, but here are the changes I found:

  • Reduction in Force section
    • Item 2, removed “however, the employee with the last employment date within a classification (i.e., teacher assistant, custodian, secretary, etc.) will be the first to be cancelled.”
    • Item 3, changed notice from 30 days to 14. Removed “The Board will forward a list of those employees being reduced to the Classified Association on the same date that the notice of cancellation was sent to the employee.”, added “The employee may be instructed not to return to work if the Superintendent, or designee, deem it in the best interests of the District.”
  • Recall section
    • Very minor rewording of header
    • Item 1, removed “In the best interests of the District, the Superintendent or designee will recall support staff employees from the list based on seniority.”, and added “When deemed in the best interest of the District, the Superintendent or designee may recall support staff employees from the list.” Note the change in language from ‘will‘ to ‘may‘.
    • Item 2, changed from 2 years to 1 year.
    • Item 3, removed “When a job opening occurs within the District, the former employee eligible for re-employment according to the recall list will receive written notice sent to the last known address by certified letter. The former employee must respond within five (5) days of receiving such notice.”, added “It is the responsibility of the former employees to maintain awareness of when a job opening is posted by the District for which the employee is qualified to apply.”
Original Policy, from 3/2011
Policy updated on 3/9/2023
https://z2.ctspublish.com/casb/browse/woodland-casb/woodland/z20000216

Proposed change to policy GP-5

Our board has traditionally ignored and violated their own governing policies, but seems intent now on instead of violating policy, changing it to align with what they’re going to do anyway. The latest policy under examination is GP-5. Proposed changes are to the first sentence of the policy, which currently reads:

Board members must represent the interests of the citizens of the entire school District.

In the last board meeting on 2/8/23, Witt did a first reading of the proposed change, which he suggested should read:

Board members must represent the educational interests of the students and families as first priority, as well as the citizens of the entire school District.

We expected the board to do their second reading, and vote, on this policy change in the 3/8/23 meeting (as stated in the agenda). Instead, David Illingworth offered forth a different proposal for GP-5:

Board members must represent the interests of the citizens of the entire school District, while always recognizing that the district exists solely to educate children and that parents retain a fundamental constitutional right to direct their children’s education.

Anyone reading the posted agenda would have expected a second reading of the policy change proposed by Witt in the last meeting. The fact that no board members appeared surprised (there was zero discussion on it when prompted by President Rusterholtz) by this change of plans does further suggest more discussion is happening outside of the public eye.

This policy change furthers the stated focus of the board to be academics only. The board is intent on cutting all Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs and denying any grants (and thus calling into question continuance of any programs/classes funded by those grants). It remains to be seen how the board will view art, music, and athletic programs.