MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) Policy Committee had a fairly short meeting on Tuesday, addressing two topics that will likely come before the full BOSC within the next few weeks.
The first item addressed the proposed BOSC Ethics Policy. The matter was sent back to committee after concerns by Arthur Beaudry (Ward 9) during the BOSC’s meeting on March 8 (49:04 in the MCTV video)
Beaudry felt that the initial proposal of the new policy infringed on BOSC members rights to free speech and was not stringent enough in addressing confidentiality violations among other concerns.
The proposed changes came in response to concerns over former BOSC member David Scannell releasing personal information of a student, attempting to shine a spotlight on an incident between that student and former BOSC Member Richard Girard.
Beaudry was not present at the meeting on Tuesday, but BOSC Policy Committee Chair Leslie Want (Ward 4) said she had talked to Beaudry prior to the meeting and believed the changes met Beaudry’s approval.
Manchester School District Attorney Kathryn Cox Pelletier said that the BOSC has a wide latitude over its ethics policy and having one at all is entirely optional.
The modified ethics policy was approved unanimously. The second item, a significant clarification on the district’s student discipline and due process policy, was tabled, as action on it is not needed until July.
In this proposed policy, committee members noted that suspensions and other punishments should be gradually increased with repeated offenses rather than giving long-term punishments immediately.
The punishments should also be paired with an understanding of the root causes leading to the punishment to avoid further incidents in the future.
One point mentioned by members of the committee was racial inequity in the Manchester School District’s current punishment system, with students of color believing that they are more likely to be treated unfairly when it comes to detentions, suspensions or expulsions.
Another point came in regard to addressing extenuating factors regarding punishment, such as the need for a student to help families after school with work or child care necessitating alternatives to after-school detention.