Zumwalt Approves Policy Changes

The Fort Zumwalt School Board passed new policy to address Missouri Senate Bill 54. 

During the summer of 2011 Senate Bill 54 created a bit of controversy in the state. The so-called social media law limited school teachers interactions with students involving social media sites like Facebook. Originally the bill prohibited teachers and students from being friends and exchanging messages on Facebook.

On Tuesday night at the District's monthly meeting, the Zumwalt board approved a measure that would control communication between teachers and students. The two parties will be allowed to exchange communication over District-approved channels at all times. Emails sent from District computers are monitored.

A note will be sent to parents if they want to allow further communication. If a parent grants premission to use things like texts or Facebook, the teacher and student can utilize those tools, as long as the parent is looped into the conversation. The Board approved this new policy unanimously. 

Included in the policy changes was a measure to require district employees to wear ID badges at all times. The mention of ID badges, a month after the Board denied a change to the student ID policy, caught the attention of Board member Laure Schmidt. For two months worth of meetings, Schmidt had been trying to get the student ID policy changed. She was told that the Board didn't want to change ID policy during the year and would review the issue during the summer months. Last night, the Board was asked to change the staff policy mid year.

Schmidt said she would, and she did, vote in favor of the policy requiring staff to wear ID badges but she wondered why the Board would change this policy mid year and not the student policy. The consensus from the rest of the Board and Superintendent Bernard DuBray was that staff was already encouraged to wear ID badges, so it wouldn't be a major change. Plus, as board member Scott Grasser said, the staff are employees who don't have time off. He said companies change policies all the time for employees and this was the same thing. 

Other Notes

• Board president Mike Price was recognized for earning Masters Certification as a school board member. Price recently received the 40 credits needed to achieve the master-level honor. 
• The District is still waiting on property tax money from St. Charles County. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Orr said the District is still missing around $23 million. Orr said he was told via email the money was slated to come last week, and then again on Wednesday. 
• In other financial news, Orr said the District's overall revenue and expenses are in line with budget. 
• The Board approved a thespian travel request for South and West High Schools. 
• In an effort to save some money, the District refinanced several bonds. Be switching from 4 percent to 2 percent bonds, the District will save around $400,000. 
• Nearly all of Zumwalt's 6,000 computers district wide are leased. To avoid getting old computers, the school leases computers on a four-year cycle to keep fresh, new computers into the school. The board approved a lease proposal to add computers to the high school business, marketing and math labs. Several middle schools and West High will also get a new mobile lab. All the computers will be on a four-year lease.