policy

School Committee Policy Handbook - Web Version

Mission: The Shrewsbury Public Schools in partnership with the community will provide students with the skills and knowledge for the 21st century, an appreciation for our democratic tradition and the desire to continue to learn throughout life.

The School Committee policies and information systems:

helps provide a sound basis for School Committee functioning on a meeting by meeting basis
serves as a "re-callable memory" of important past policy decisions
provides for a convenient way to amend or delete existing policies and to add additional policies
has major and sub-categories which make sense to the School Committee members
keys in the location of provisions of major law and regulations with appropriate policy sections
includes an information file for the state and federal regulations, school regulations, and negotiated agreements and other documents which are organized in the same way as the policy manual

There is no magic number of policies which a School Committee has to have. A policy may be needed when:

an event occurs many times, but with different groups( i.e. Use of School Facilities)
an event affects everyone, but on a irregular basis (i.e. Emergency Drills)
an event happens once a year, but occurs every year (i.e. Senior Trip)
an event happens seldom, but the consequences are catastrophic if the situation is not covered (i.e. Insurance)
a situation needs highest level "guidance or structure" (i.e. Annual Budget)
some action has been taken which should be "remembered".

Policy is not needed if...

there are detailed provisions in the law or regulations to which the School Committee is subject
an event is not likely to occur again
an event occurs a second time but the conditions under which it occurs will probably be entirely different
the situation is a "contending" kind of problem
it is better to remain silent

There are two physical components of the "School Committee Policy and Information System"

Loose leaf policy manual, "8 1/2 x 11" format, containing the introduction, index, and nine policy sections. The Superintendent is authorized to designate one copy of the manual as the LEGAL- HISTORICAL COPY of the School Committee policies.
Letter-sized information file drawer, organized according to the same classification system as the policy manual except that a "000 General Information" section has been added prior to Section 100.
Proposed - a web version of selected policies contained within the items stated above

The School Committee will be reviewing the each policy section and determine which specific policies would benefit our community by have a web version posted. This initiative is very new and came about as a result of conversations relating to the Acceptable Use Policy for Internet and technology hardware use. In the future, various policies will be posted in the following categories: General, Operations, Organization, Personnel, Employee Related, Educational Programs, Student Services, Responsibilities, Equipment/Buildings and Business.