Board of Education updating policies

The Glenn County Board of Education has spent much of 2012 fulfilling the recommendation of the Glenn County grand jury to update its policies and keep them in a location readily available to the public.

The grand jury recommended the board develop a binder of adopted policies after questions were raised — specifically about the relationship between the Office of Education and the Board of Education — and whether Office of Education employees received harassment training.

The grand jury concluded the checks and balances of the Glenn County Office of Education and the Board of Education have improved over the past few years, with ongoing development of policies that dictate their interaction.

Board members Gene Massa and Janice Cannon have met regularly with Superintendent of Schools Tracey Quarne to update policies, and most will be completed by early next year.

Board President Judy Holzapfel was appointed Nov. 14 to replace Massa on the policy sub-committee since Massa was drawn out of the trustee area he represented, and was elected Nov. 6 to the Butte-Glenn Community College District.

"This is just for the month of December," Holzapfel said.

Policies the board have developed since it began its review range from how the board interacts with the county Office of Education to employee use of computers to access social network sites on the Internet.

Some of the more complicated policies the board has had to deal with have arisen from changes in the law, officials said.

A new law, for example, changes the charter school review process to emphasis the importance of student achievement.

Under Senate Bill 1290, charter petitions will now be required to describe public academic achievement outcomes both schoolwide and for all groups of pupils served by the charter school.

Glenn County Office of Education operates William Finch, a charter elementary and high school.

The Board of Education expects to review and adopt the new policy regarding petitions for the establishment of charter schools in December.

On Nov. 14, the board adopted a new policy on employee use of computers, which prohibits employees from "abusing" access to the Internet for purposes other than what is related to their employment or in any manner that results in an unauthorized monetary expense to the Office of Education.

Accessing, posting, submitting or displaying harmful or inappropriate matter that is threatening, obscene, or disturbing could results in civil liability, monetary damages, disciplinary action and criminal prosecution, according to the policy.

Abusing the Internet for personal use personal e-mail, video downloading, instant messaging, music streaming, gaming, blogging and participation on social networking websites that use chat rooms such as MySpace and Facebook.

The Office of Education will monitor and log all online activities, according the policy.

The Board of Education will appoint a new member to the policy sub-committee in December after new members Adele Foley and Helen Duree are sworn into office.

Foley and Duree were elected Nov. 6, along with Holzapfel, who was re-elected for a second term.