Board discusses what to bring to committee

Members of the Unified School District 234 Board of Education met Monday night to discuss what the board's position will be when an advisory committee is formed in the near future to discuss what needs to be changed or clarified, if anything, in Fort Scott High School disciplinary policies.

This was a follow-up to a special meeting that was called September 30 to discuss the policy in the aftermath of suspensions handed down by FSHS athletic programs and activities when students were found to have been in attendance at a party where alcohol was served.

At that time, the board came to the conclusion that although procedures had been followed, that there were items about the policy that needed to be addressed.

The board did not meet Monday to make actual changes but to choose two members to represent it on the committee when it meets and to clarify what it would like to see happen.

In fact, board president Matt Ida Wednesday afternoon said that if one did not attend the meeting, they did not miss anything as no action toward the policy will be taken until after the committee meets.

"You obviously can't have two people from a board of seven going in unless they're representing the group as a whole," Ida said. "We kind of decided, 'These are some of the things we would like to see incorporated into the policy'. And they're all pretty common-sense. We're just trying to get some things to be consistent."

There was discussion among the board members about what the board's position will be when the committee eventually meets.

"Everybody put in their two cents about what they would like to see," Ida said. "We debated about it a little bit and we found out that it's a huge can of worms We've nailed it down as good as we could. And I think this is a common-sense issue and it needs to be quantified as well as it can be. There's too much leeway and discretion. And you can't have that."