Special Meeting & Workshop Recap for Jan. 29^th, 2014

Last Wednesday the school board had a rare Wednesday meeting because several of the board members were busy on our regular day of Tuesday as judges for the 2014 Regional Science and Engineering Fair sponsored by the Citrus County School Board.

The board meeting included a short special meeting followed by a long workshop.  At the workshop several topics were covered including the 2014-2015 Code of Student Conduct and a Food Services Nutrislice Software  and Nutrislice apps Overview.

One of the most important documents for students, parents, and staffs is the Code of Student Conduct. Each year the school board by Florida statute must pass and publish a new updated Code of Student Code (CSC). The CSC is the policies that govern the expectations and conduct of students at school.  I have had the pleasure of being a part of this process from several angles, from a husband of a teacher, father of two students in Citrus County, former School Advisory Council (SAC) chairman and now as a school board member. From each of these perspectives I continue to have great appreciation for the process.  The process of updating the CSC begins in the early fall each school year with asking school’s SAC meetings and asking members (parents, students, teachers, community members) for input on the coming year’s CSC, then each school has a Principal appointed staff member that serves on the CSC district committee and then that school staff member asks other staff members for input on the CSC which, along with the SAC input, is brought to the annual district CSC meeting.  At the annual district CSC meeting another cross section of department heads, administrators, school representatives and a school board member attend that meeting.  Following that meeting proposed changes are then brought to the school board workshop as was done this past Wednesday, January 29th.  Next the CSC will be put on the agenda to be approved for advertising and final approval.  This is about a total of a six month process from beginning to end and is repeated each school year.

At the workshop Food Service Director, Roy Pistone shared about a new service that his department is beginning, Nutrislice. This service allows parents and students to get food allergy and basic nutritional information provided on each school cafeteria menu.  The service is being paid for by the state of Florida and not by local taxes.  The information students and parents can obtain from Nutrislice allows them to make better choices and be better informed as to the health needs of students.

While Mr. Pistone shared about Nutrislice he also asked for school board feedback on a beverage request made by the Citrus County School Superintendents’ High School Student Advisory Councils.  These councils have been meeting quarterly at each high school with Superintendent Sam Himmel. They talk about their specific schools and how they can be improved. One of the requests made by each High Schools Council was for coffee to be sold in the mornings. That request was forwarded by the councils to the Food Service Department and then brought to the school board. Mr. Pistone explained that due to state and federal requirements their would be a limite as to how many a student could purchase in a day, in addition the cup size would be limited as would the amounts of sweetener and creamers (similar in size to the picture here). The school board discussed the pros and cons of the students’ request. The School Board felt, before we decided one way or the other, we should seek input from parents of the students. We requested that the Food Services Department get that information and then get back to us with the findings.  Mr. Pistone said he would seek that information and provide it to us at an upcoming board meeting.

Both of these items brought to the school board are good examples of the positive process in place to obtain input from students and parents into the decision making at their schools.