Wakefield Adds Girls Wrestling, Reviews Policies at Board of Education Meeting

WAKEFIELD – Policy discussion dominated Wakefield’s Board of Education meeting Monday night. Along with policy discussion, the board approved a new district motto, mission and belief statement as well as a new winter sport for Trojan girls.

Every three years Wakefield’s school board reviews each series of policies. This year the policy committee review series 1000 and 2000 and asked the board to approve the review, which was done unanimously.

The board was also legally required to make several changes to policies 2008, 2009, 2010, 3003.1, 3004.1, 3057 and 5012, as well as policy 3012. Policy 3012 will now allow a student to charge up to five meals if their lunch account runs out. Under the new policy, superintendent Matt Farup with communicate with families about charged meals. The motion to approve the required changes was passed. For more information on each policy, visit wakefieldschools.org.

The board’s legal team suggested making changes to policies 4056 and 6021. Policy 6021 deals with district selected evaluators, while policy 4056 changes requirements to let faculty out of their contracts after the contract acceptance date for the new school year. Currently, faculty must let the administration know they will not be returning to teach by March 15, however, if the district can find a suitable replacement after that time, the employee may be let out of their agreement. With the approved changes, now, the only way to be released from an employment agreement after March 15 is by school board approval. Farup said he felt this policy change was necessary to protect the district.

“In our given situation, I think we have to be hard-lined,” Farup said. “We can’t give them the wiggle room.”

A resolution was removed from policy 5004 regarding option enrollment. The board felt that the policy was adequate without the resolution, so struck it. The motion was supported unanimously.

Board policy 1003 was revised to adopt an updated mission, vision and belief statement. The district’s new mission statement is “The Trojan mission is to embrace diversity, educate and support the whole learner, and empower students to be critical thinkers, lifelong learners, and global citizens,” with new vision statement being “WCS strives to educate our students, embrace our diversity, and empower the next generation of our community.” The new statements came to fruition after district meetings with community stakeholders, staff and administration.

“I think it aligns a lot with all groups and different things that we’ve done, and I think it speaks to what we’re about and what we want to be,” Farup said.

After discussion and input from wrestling coach Lucas Munter, the board voted to approve Girl’s Wrestling as an official school-sponsored activity sanctioned by the Nebraska Schools Activity Association.

The next regularly scheduled Wakefield School Board meeting will be held on Monday, July 11.

Share:
Comments