Frankenmuth

20 I f you have been following the activity of the Frankenmuth School Board lately – whether through reading the newspapers, speaking with Board members or attending our meetings – you are aware that we have been immersed almost entirely in COVID-response measures. Together with our tremendous team of administrators, we have been working tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff while striving to maintain the strong academic excellence for which the Frankenmuth School District has always been known. Our decisions have not always been easy, and they are being made within an environment that is new to all involved. The landscape has been fluid and challenging at every turn. We have had to be adaptive and to think creatively while operating on a continually shrinking supply of State funds. While a significant amount of time and effort has been devoted by the Frankenmuth School Board to COVID- response measures, we still must find the time to accomplish other school business. We continue to evaluate long-term and short-term District goals, and to review and approve budget proposals to align funding priorities with those goals. With the Superintendent and the administrative team, we continue to analyze and assess staffing needs and terms and conditions of employment. We monitor school facility needs and current construction activities. We also continue to monitor student assessment results and evaluate curriculum needs. As one of the largest undertakings we have had in some time, we are currently finalizing a multi-year project that involves replacing our entire book of Board bylaws, District policies and administrative guidelines. We realized some time ago that our existing District policies, while serving their purpose, were not keeping up with the times. The law pertaining to education is constantly changing. Most (if not all) school boards, including our own, do not have the means or the expertise to ensure that district policies continue to be legally compliant and consistent with new legal mandates in the face of that constant change. For this reason, our District has contracted with Neola to provide this needed expertise. Neola started in 1986 and has since developed form policies for school districts across the United States. In Michigan, Neola has partnered with the Michigan Association of School Boards to provide policies to almost five hundred school districts in the State. For our District, Neola proposed thousands of pages of initial form policies, which our Board and the Superintendent then tediously worked through to revise and adapt to represent the educational philosophy of the District. Our administrators are now working through the same process with the form administrative guidelines. Once complete, we will have a comprehensive package of Board bylaws, District policies and administrative guidelines. And one of the biggest benefits of Neola is that they monitor that package and, twice a year, provide updates and supplements to ensure continuing compliance with applicable law. In the event one of our policies is determined to be out of compliance, Neola stands behind that policy and will indemnify the District for any losses arising from noncompliance. Though school policy is not glamorous, and is certainly not as interesting to some as it is to others, it is a necessary framework governing the operations of all school districts. We are excited to bring this lengthy and important process to a close. The policies and procedures that we are putting in place now will have a long-lasting benefit to our District well into the future. NEW SCHOOL BOARD POLICY BOOK B Y B R A N DO N M U L L E R F S D S C H OO L B O A R D P R E S I D E N T

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