No capes, no flags, no blankets.
These were part of dress code changes for middle and high schools that the Oelwein School Board approved as part of handbook updates on Monday. There are also discipline changes and a candy policy for elementary.
At Wings Park Elementary, which is updating its policy on birthday or party treats, the school now requires all treats to be prepackaged and peanut-free.
The Oelwein College Handbook has updated its dress code section with specific wording stating that flags/blankets are not permitted to be worn.
This is due to several incidents during the year, an explicit formulation seemed necessary, indicates the executive summary presented by the director of the Oelwein college, Jennykaye Hampton.
The dress code portion of the high school manual has been updated to state that sunglasses and coverings, including but not limited to flags, blankets, capes, etc. are not authorized.
The middle and upper classes have also clarified their detention and truancy policies. To the college manual, administrators added more options on what detention might mean for a student. Hampton told the board this would give teachers more flexibility.
Detentions must be determined by the administration if it involves anything other than class work. Other options include cleaning and working with custodial staff. Possible Saturday school was added to the permitted hours, along with non-class hours during the school week.
Students must make arrangements to serve the detention in a timely manner, and the teacher will contact the parent or guardian.
In high school, the truancy policy will change the wording of a letter home to contact home for first and second offenses.
In course withdrawal, it was added that after six absences from school, a student can be withdrawn without receiving credit for the course.
Staff will contact home after three delays and parent meeting added after 10 delays.
Superintendent Josh Ehn addressed the challenges of traditional discipline pathways at the meeting.
After-school detention, suspension and eligibility are the three big tools a principal has, Ehn said.
Some say it also tends to punish the teacher, Ehn said, acknowledging that staff retention is a well-known problem.
It’s been more difficult over the last few years, especially when we were just hyper vigilant at the moment about the impacts of staff, and staff requiring teachers to stay after school for detention or if you assign detention, you have to be the one left after school for the kid to serve him, says Ehn.
Well, there’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy for some people, I’m not going to write detentions, so I don’t have to stick around and watch the kids any longer.
Our principals have become increasingly creative about how to hold children accountable, what kind of punishments we can give students so they know a rule has been broken or what they have done was bad, Ehn said.
Trying to think outside the box and have a full roster, so in the middle of the year when I get this creative idea of doing a lunchtime detention or having the students stay and sweep the floors, a parent or a student doesn’t come back and says It’s not in your textbook. It’s not in your policy, you can’t force me to do this, Ehn said.
Bolstering that list of disciplines gives them more tools in their toolbox so to speak when it comes to disciplining students, he said.
High school and activity books added soccer and esports to activities and added Remind, a phone notification, under weather alerts and cancellations.
Some manuals have clarified the transfer policy to and from Oelwein Online, abbreviated as O2. The first changes were covered last fall.
