The Neenah Joint School District Board of Education approved a non-discrimination policy for transgender and gender non-conforming students at its August 18 meeting.
The policy provides guidelines for maintaining an educational environment that supports the inclusion, safety and privacy for all students. The guidelines reflect the way school administrators and staff have been handling situations related to transgender and gender non-conforming students in recent years, and now put those practices into formal policy. The policy passed with a 7-2 vote.
Additional staffing was approved in order to meet staffing needs the District is facing with COVID-19. Three additional substitute teachers were approved at the elementary level and an additional teacher was hired for Horace Mann Middle School. A 0.2 FTE overload was added at Neenah High School and Austin Moore was reassigned from technology coach to Associate Principal of Elementary Learning for the first semester. Moore will oversee the staff and students involved in virtual learning. The total costs of the staffing increases was $186,000.
The Board also reviewed the re-entry plan for schools and held a discussion about various aspects of the plan. It was noted that a special meeting for re-entry will be held on Tuesday, August 25 at 6 p.m. to continue the discussion and specifically address the criteria for the red, yellow and green status for school closings.
In other action, the Board approved hires for Rhea Rindt as a kindergarten teacher at Spring Road, Kayleigh Araiza as a third grade teacher at Taft, Reagan Nagler as a cross categorical and health educational assistant at Clayton and Tina Willems as the Door 3 receptionist at the high school. Kelsey Hietpas had a request approved to move from full-time to a half-time speech and language pathologist at Coolidge with Molly Swanson being hired for the other half of the position. Resignations were approved for District nurse Michelle Kaczorowski, accountant Pam Jaenke, Wilson educational assistant Katie Riehl and high school educational assistant Elaine Goltz.
Board President Brian Epley opened the meeting by observing a moment of silence in memory of Deputy Superintendent for Business Services Andrew Thorson, who passed away on August 15. The open forum lasted about an hour with many of the comments related to the transgender and gender non-conforming policy.
The next regular meeting of the Board is set for Sept. 1 at 6 p.m.
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