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Milford School District reviews policy changes

Terry RogersMilford Headline Story, Schools

msdAt the regular meeting of the Milford School District Board of Education, several policy changes and updates were reviewed. These policies included changes to the dress code for the 2020-21 school year, conflict of interest as well as duties and ethics for board members as well as the family involvement policy.

“We are recommending that the dress code policy which we changed for this year only be kept in place until the end of the school year,” Dr. Kevin Dickerson, Superintendent said. “This seems to be working well for our families and has not interfered with education at this time.”

Board member David Vezmar questioned whether this would be revisited in July or if it would revert back automatically. Board President Jason Miller stated that if nothing was done, the new policy would expire in July and the previous policy would return. The board approved the policy through the end of the year unanimously.

Dr. Bridget Amory explained that the Family Involvement Policy was designed to bring the district in line with current federal standards.

“We have been waiting for guidance from the Department of Education in order to update this policy,” Dr. Amory said. “Once we received the guidance, we sent it out to our community and families to get input and made the necessary adjustments.” The board approved the updated policy unanimously.

Vice President Rony Baltazar presented two draft board policies for review. The first was a Conflict of Interest Policy and the second was a Board Member Duties and Ethics Policy.

“The conflict of interest policy goes with one of the bullet points in the board duties and ethics policy,” Baltazar-Lopez said. “I feel like with the turnover of board members recently, I feel that we need to have a specific policy if a board member has a conflict of interest.”

Vezmar questioned whether the district attorney had reviewed the policy.

“My concern is that my wife works in the district and I have two sons in the district,” Vezmar said. “I think people could say any vote I make could benefit my wife or my children. There are districts that say if you are a district employee, you cannot have a spouse on the board and if that is the way this board wants to go, so be it. I just think we need to make this very clear. We are a small district, a small town. We will always have conflict of interest in some way just with family members.”

Baltazar-Lopez stated that his initial thought was more about bidding and contracts. He did not intend the policy to preclude people from serving on the board just because they had children in the district. Board member Kris Thompson agreed with Vezmar, also pointing out that he had children in the district. Dr. Dickerson agreed to have the policy, along with the duties and ethics policy, reviewed by the district attorney. The policies will be brought before the board for approval at a future meeting.

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