Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Discipline policy examined at Nevada

After expelling a student earlier in the week, the Nevada School Board discussed discipline at its regular monthly meeting.

Nevada Elementary Principal Natalie Sherwood began by saying the first thing to occur when there's been a discipline problem is the teacher making contact with the student's parents.

This is followed by getting the counselor involved with the teacher and parent if the situation hasn't been resolved.

The parents, she said, must come to the school to meet with the teacher or the child will be excluded from school until the parents show up.

Rick McAfee, district superintendent, said the exclusion can't be for more than 10 days, and is a tool to get the parents and teachers together and talk about the problem. If the parents don't come after 10 days, the student could be expelled.

There are consequences, Sherwood said, where the teacher decides on what action to be used as punishment. The student's home room teacher acts as the case manager, and discipline problems usually go no further than this.

The middle school shares ALE classes with the high school for those in the upper grades, but not for elementary students. This, she said, is a good backup.

The middle school, she said, has its own In School Suspension, with teachers rotating to oversee the ISS and make sure students get their work done.

McAfee said all discipline reports are kept on record, and in the state computer system.

If a student is expelled from one district, they can't be enrolled in another until the expulsion has ended. The same goes for suspensions, he said.

However, under federal law, no special education student can be expelled, regardless of the infraction. Districts, he said, must find alternate means of educating these students.

Blake Epperson, Nevada High School principal, gave the board numbers of infractions by high school students. There were 18 students who had been suspended, four receiving corporal punishment and 168 in after school detention, with three bus suspensions.

McAfee said transportation is a privilege, not a requirement of school districts. Bus suspensions are generally five-days, but can be up to an entire semester.

Of the 168 in after school detention, Epperson said, most are because of students being tardy to class. When a student is tardy the second time, they are placed in detention or in Saturday school.

At this time, he said, there is nothing in place to prevent students who have been suspended from coming to school events, even though part of their punishment precludes them from coming to, or participating in school events.

For any who do violate these terms, he said, there are consequences.

Jim Cross, maintenance and transportation director, said there has been leak in the roof, but repairs are underway. The work crew has been unobtrusive as possible so as not to disrupt classes.

The company doing the roofing work will add flashing to two spots on the gym's roof. Though it's not leaking now, Cross said, without the flashing added, it soon could be.

McAfee said the roofing is covered by the school's insurance, which should pay for the entire amount, except for the deductible.

The board approved applying for renovation grants to help the district.

There are two grants involved, with one being to upgrade education for special needs students at NES.

The money from this grant, if the district gets it, will be used to install a cordless microphone and speakers in all classrooms so students can hear the teacher as the instructor speaks in a normal tone of voice.

McAfee said it will cost about $27,000 to do this, with the amount available being $50,000 for this particular grant.

The other grant the district will apply for would be used to replace all of the heating units at the facility. These units, McAfee said, are 13 years old and aren't energy efficient. There are 56 units needing to be replaced.

There is a total of $8,180,854 available to the state from the federal grant administrator for the renovation program.

McAfee will get a cost estimate on replacing all 56 units before the district applies for the grant.

The best thing about the two grants, he said, is they are 100 percent, meaning the district doesn't have to come up with any matching monies.

The board agreed to forego a December meeting, as has been the norm, and meet again on January 17, 2002.

"I hope to have some good news for you at the January meeting, McAfee said.