During its regular meeting held on Sept. 1, the Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education (BoE) unanimously approved multiple policies.
The board unanimously approved the first reading of the district’s amended school transportation vehicle operator requirements policy.
Superintendent Rick Holt explained that the purpose of updating the policy is “to match that of the state,” specifically to match the state’s age requirement.
Holt explained that the district’s previous policy had a minimum age limit requirement of 21 years, and the state’s minimum is 18 years.
“We felt it best to be aligned with the state so that we could access as many possible drivers,” Holt said.
Absentee policy
The BoE also unanimously approved the second reading of its amended students absences and excuses policy.
The board first considered the amended policy at its Aug. 5 meeting, ultimately choosing to not take any action on the first reading and recommending changes to be brought for the second reading.
See the article titled “School district considering updated attendance policy” in the Aug. 20 edition of The SUN for addition information.
During the Sept. 2 meeting, Holt explained that language was added for San Juan Mountain School and Pagosa Family School “that operate under different guidelines,” giving those schools the option to modify the policy at the school level.
“We want to make sure they had the flexibility to have a policy approved that met their needs,” Holt added.
He also explained that the other BoE’s suggestion on how daily attendance is calculated was added to the policy, along with how families can contact schools and the process for setting up a prearranged absence.
“[The] rest of the policy remained unchanged,” Holt said.
BoE member Amanda Schick commented that a prearranged absence is an excused absence, but that it still counts toward the student’s absence rate.
“We’re also trying to highlight that those unexcused absences are really truancy. Those are the ones where we just have no idea, either we’ve witnessed a student leave campus without permission, or they’ve had no contact with families,” Holt said.
He noted that the district has opportunities to talk to families to address those situations.
“What we’re finding is that people were racking up excused absences at an inordinate rate that made them chronically absent,” Holt said, noting that was happening under the guise that it was excused, “so it’s OK.”
He added, “We’re trying to say that it’s OK, but you need to be aware that you’re missing learning opportunities … specifically your child is missing opportunities to learn.”
The BoE also noted that absences for school-sponsored events are excluded from the policy.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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