{"id":41099,"date":"2018-10-18T09:02:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T13:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=41099"},"modified":"2018-10-18T09:02:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T13:02:27","slug":"ucf-board-takes-first-look-at-new-discipline-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=41099","title":{"rendered":"UCF board takes first look at new discipline policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The Monday night meeting of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board held at Unionville Elementary included routine voting items and the official \u201cfirst read\u201d of the District\u2019s redesigned discipline policy.\u00a0 This policy was reworked extensively over the summer and could be voted on as soon as next month.<\/p>\n

Recent UHS graduate and former Board Student Representative Gavin Brezski used the opening public comments portion to disagree with the proposed policy\u2019s rescission clause.\u00a0 He cautioned of a potential disconnect between the Board\u2019s intention and the students\u2019 perception of the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that having the rescission policy in place makes students feel more comfortable about committing wrongdoings.\u00a0 It enables the belief that having a fail-safe in their back pocket guarantees them a second chance.\u201d\u00a0 He also thought that it could unintentionally create a divide between the High School Administration, District Administration and parents.\u00a0 Should the District Administration grant a rescission, it could be interpreted that the suspension was wrongly given by the High School team in the first place.<\/p>\n

Referring to the recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Brezski closed with this thought: \u201cI think that if recent politics has taught us anything, it\u2019s that actions in high school do matter and can affect our lives twenty, thirty, forty years down the road.\u00a0 Instead of giving students a way to misstep, we should be finding ways to promote positive educational behavior so that we don\u2019t have one of those missteps in the first place. \u201c<\/p>\n

Board President Jeff Hellrung used his closing comments to promote the proposed changes to the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a person who participated on the committee with about thirty others including three students, many of our staff administrators and parents\u2014a very good cross section of our community.<\/p>\n

For me, the high points of the recommended policy that we just had for first reading tonight was first– focus on safety and security, second–the call for mutual respect between staff and students, third– there is a rightful focus on student rights, but also on responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hellrung then touted the flexibility and restorative justice aspects of the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext there is an opportunity for both shorter and possibly fewer suspensions. And in place of those suspensions, which often carry some significant unintended consequences–especially in the lack of academic time–in place of that we are going to give students the opportunity for some educational opportunities.\u00a0 We are going to give administrators more flexibility in determining an appropriate consequence to behavioral infractions that will help the student learn from the experience and\u00a0 reemerge stronger and better from the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hellrung also addressed the split view regarding allowing students to apply for a rescission for a first offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd finally, there were some significant improvements that came from the committee to the rescission policy.\u00a0 We are going to go with rescission at least until year end.\u201d\u00a0 He explained, \u201cWe also have a commitment from Administration to assess the effect of this rescission policy at the end of year one and come back to the Board with a summary of what our experience has been.\u00a0 Of course, the intention is to have it be a positive thing that gives students a second chance and that doesn\u2019t have any unintended negative consequences, such as communicating that students have one freebee.<\/p>\n

“And finally, I\u2019ll point out that probably the biggest change is we\u2019re mandating some educational counseling and experiences for students who have committed alcohol and drug related offenses.\u00a0 So whereas our past practice has been an automatic ten-day out-of-school suspension, our new practice will likely result in shorter suspensions and other consequences that will help the students learn from their experience. \u201c\u00a0 Hellrung then added, \u201cAnd I would just like to say to those who are opposed to that, who think that that should be a matter between parent and child, it is a matter of parent and child at home<\/em>.\u00a0 But the minute that behavior takes place in school or at a school event, it becomes our problem as well.\u00a0 And we are going to do the best we can to give appropriate consequences to turn that into a learning experience for the child in accordance with our purpose of developing students that are going to be successful in life and contribute to society (as per the District\u2019s mission statement).\u201d<\/p>\n

In other news, Unionville Elementary principal Michelle Lafferty and staff honored fourth grade student Emma Yardley for exemplifying the \u201cUE Way\u2014Be Safe, Be Open, and Be Present.\u201d\u00a0 A key component is showing empathy.\u00a0 To support a UE teacher\u2019s daughter who had a life-changing surgery, Emma took it upon herself to raise money for a children\u2019s charity in the girl\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Lafferty also led an exercise to show the Board members and audience how UCF is incorporating educational strategies learned from the Franklin Institute\u2019s partnership with the District for staff professional development.\u00a0 A key takeaway is that involving student emotions (whether frustration, excitement, or joy) will help increase the meaning and memory of a lesson.<\/p>\n

Board Student Representative Winnie Elvin reported on a High School assembly that featured the Sandy Hook Promise\u2019s \u201csay something\u201d reporting system, where students can anonymously report on unsafe situations.\u00a0 A similar state-wide program will be officially rolled out in January.\u00a0 The assembly also instructed students on how to react in the event of an intruder at the school.<\/p>\n

There were many items unanimously approved by the Board, including a Spanish club field trip to Costa Rica, the High School Indoor Drumline field trip to Dayton in April, the 2019-2022 District Comprehensive Plan, a new economics textbook, and five policies.\u00a0 $1.6 million will be transferred to capital funds.\u00a0 As these items were fully explained and discussed at previous work sessions, all votes occurred without comment and discussion.<\/p>\n

Next Up:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Curriculum and Instruction meeting at 4:30, and the Work Session at 7:30 on November 12th in room 14 at the District Office, adjacent to the High School.<\/p>\n

They are both open to the public.\u00a0 Additionally, they are broadcasted live (and archived) on the UCFSD web site.<\/p>\n

Board documents:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.boarddocs.com\/pa\/uncf\/Board.nsf\/public<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips, Staff Writer, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The Monday night meeting of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board held at Unionville Elementary included routine voting items and the official \u201cfirst read\u201d of the District\u2019s redesigned discipline policy.\u00a0 This policy was reworked extensively over the summer and could be voted on as soon as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[485,11649,7426,1286],"class_list":["post-41099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-board-of-education","tag-discipline-policy","tag-featured","tag-unionville-chadds-ford-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41100,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41099\/revisions\/41100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}