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Dr. David Hopson |
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December 3, 2007 By law, the school committee has three major responsibilities—establishing a budget for the district, setting policies for the district and hiring the superintendent and business manager. The responsibilities that most of the public sees is budget development and the occasional hiring of central office staff. The policy aspect of the school committee is often overlooked although policies form the basis for district operations, for the decisions made by staff and the school committee, and for every action taken within the district.
Earlier this fall a local organization asked to distribute a flyer through the school district, just as others have done over the years. The district’s policy has been to allow distribution of information through the schools. Several years ago, the district had an issue with some material that was distributed leading to the requirement that the following disclaimer be printed on all non-school material being distributed: “The school committee does not support, condone or in any way adopt the philosophical or ideological beliefs of the group as an official policy.” Until this fall, this policy seemed to be working; yes we did have the occasional complaint from staff or the public, but overall there weren’t many issues. The distribution of a flyer this fall brought the problems with such an open policy to light, and began a rigorous discussion on balancing of the rights of individuals with the desire of the public to get community event information delivered through school children. The flyer in question had religious overtones that were perceived to be offensive by some individuals. This resulted in some staff and community members requesting that the distribution of offensive materials be controlled within the school district. The obvious solution to the problem appears to be simple—just allow the distribution of non-offensive materials. The catch to this answer is that everyone has a different level at which they become offended and the law is clear that the schools cannot discriminate; i.e., if we allow some community organizations to distribute information on community services we must allow other groups to distribute information that would easily be seen as offensive to the majority of people in our communities. By law, the district would be very limited in what they could block from dissemination—essentially those items that support illegal activities or pornography. The school committee is reviewing a policy that would restrict the distribution of materials in the schools to town-sponsored activities, school-sponsored activities and non-profit independent organizations that can prove that the school district is the exclusive benefactor of its activities (i.e., the Gateway Booster Clubs and Gateway Youth Athletic Association). All other organizations would be able to have their materials posted on a district webpage for ‘Outside Flyer/Event Information’. This policy, if adopted, would severely restrict the distribution of outside information directly through the schools and our students but would protect the district from potential conflicts of interest and lawsuits. As can be expected, the school committee is having a difficult time balancing whether they should adopt a restrictive policy or leave the policy open ended and face potential legal action against the district. This decision is made more difficult given the increasing number of legal actions taken against schools regarding individual rights within an organization and the ability of the schools to select what type of information is distributed. In some ways, the reduction of materials distributed would be harmful to the communities and increase the cost of distributing materials for local organizations. On the other hand, there are a number of organizations that could spend much money ensuring that other, potentially less beneficial organizations, can distribute information so that the ‘fairness’ and ‘equal access’ aspects of current laws are enforced. Like all of our local officials who take on difficult tasks for little or no pay, school committee members will weigh the benefits and drawbacks and make the decision regarding this policy that they feel is in the best interests of our children, schools and communities. As we continue to struggle with this decision and look for other potential alternatives, the school committee is seeking additional public input. Please share your thoughts through e-mail at myopinion@grsd.org or by mail to 12 Littleville Road, Huntington, MA. ### |
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