The Bartholomew Consolidated School Board is considering new rules and policies for the district, including expanding and clarifying the definition of protected classes of students and staff within the school district.
And the revisions would expand the scope of where harassment can take place that can rise to actionable items for the schools.
Under the proposed policies, the definition of Protected Classes by sex has been expanded to include transgender status, sexual orientation and gender identity. The previous policies only included sexual orientation or transgender identity.
Where the harassment policies used to be applicable during “educational programs or activities,” the proposed changes would be in effect if the activities are “affecting the Corporation environment.”
Dr. John Quick said many of the changes are mandated at the state level and there are no major changes.
The new policies, covering many areas of school operations and amounting to about 200 pages in total, were presented for discussion at the school board’s meeting last night and will be up for a vote in two weeks.
You can read the proposed policy changes here (PDF download):