The Bradley County Board of Education held a work session meeting on Tuesday evening in which members discussed the agenda for the AdvancED accreditation evaluation visit and the steps they have been taking to prepare for the visit.
Some of the tasks that the school system had to complete in order to meet the AdvancED standards for quality were to show examples of continuous improvement processes and update their policies and demographic information.
The school system as well as individual schools had to perform an internal review by conducting a self-assessment to determine whether or not the system met the criteria for AdvancED.
Stakeholder feedback was also gathered. Parents, students and staff filled out an online survey. Some factors to note were that not all parents were able to complete the survey, especially the English as a Second Language population. Other factors were that secondary students were less likely to complete the survey, the wording was confusing at times and parents with multiple students in the school system needed to be taken account of.
Other items that were discussed at the board meeting included recommendations from Tennessee School Boards Association, such as changes to school board records request process, the emergency preparedness plan, the unmanned aircraft policy, the policy against discrimination, hazing and bullying and student wellness plan.Requests for school board records can now be made via email. Prior to this, requests could only be made in person or online.
The emergency preparedness plan states that any school with an automated external defibrillator (AED) must conduct a CPR and AED drill to ensure students are aware of the steps that must be taken in the event of a medical emergency.
Adjustments that were made to the discriminating, hazing and bullying policy included a requirement that all complaints must be responded to within 24 hours. If not, the director must be notified in writing as to why there was no response. All investigations must be completed and appropriate actions taken place within 20 days, rather than 30 days.
The student wellness plan also had some adjustments. For kindergarten and first grade, the requirement is three 15-minute periods of non-structured physical activity per day. In grades two – six, a minimum of two 20-minute periods of non-structured physical activity at least four days per week is required. For grades 7-12, the requirement will stay the same at a minimum of 90 minutes of physical activity per week.
All policies were moved to consent agenda on first reading, with the exception of the unmanned aircraft policy, which was moved to the September meeting.