The Snowflake Unified School District Governing Board finally approved policies recommended by the Arizona School Boards Association, with two exceptions.
Superintendent Hollis Merrell asked the board to table this item at the September board meeting in order to get a legal opinion regarding weapons in school, and nondiscrimination and gender identity.
Merrell recommended that the board not adopt the optional policy Nondiscrimination and Gender Identity, which was written in response to the U.S. departments of Education and Justice sending guidance to schools on transgender students. In a memorandum dated Oct. 5, Merrell stated, “As you are aware, this guidance is being legally challenged. Our legal counsel told me that all the schools they have advised on transgender issues have been able to work through the concerns and come to an agreement with parents on alternate bathrooms, etc. Adoption of this optional policy would limit those discussions and compromises.
“Secondly, I am not recommending adoption of the additional language to policy JICI, Weapons in School. I had concerns regarding the language that would require us to potentially allow students to have a deadly weapon parked in front of the school, since the parking is on the street, which is also a public right of way. I also had concerns with the phrase ‘within a person’s means of transportation.’ That statement is a little vague. Does that mean someone could carry a weapon on a scooter or a skateboard? Our attorneys reviewed all district policies, state laws, federal laws and AG opinions. Eve Parnell from Hufford and Horsteman said the law does not require this particular phrase and that our other policies currently in place meet the legal requirement. Her opinion was that we do not need to adopt the addition to the policy. She agreed that we might have a problem with this if it ever came up, as we have a street that is also used as a parking lot,” wrote Merrell.
The governing board unanimously approved the ASBA policy recommendations with the two exceptions noted.
In other business Business Manager Mark Ollerton gave the annual financial report, noting there will be a summary on the school website. He said in summary, “We lived within our budgets,” and they recognized the audits from 2014, noting the audit gave them some good information and the district takes the audits very seriously.
Ollerton said that the problem the district is having is growth, but, “That’s a good problem to have.” The school year 2015-16 ended with an average daily membership (ADM) of 2,329 and the district began the 2016-17 school year with 2,454 ADM. The Arizona Legislature definition of ADM “means the total enrollment of fractional students and full-time students, minus withdrawals, of each school day through the first 100 days or 200 days in session, as applicable, for the current year.”
“Over the last few weeks we have continued to grow,” Merrell added, noting that the increase was generally due to new families moving to the area.
