LOVELOCK - With the enactment of NRS 388.1353 in the last Nevada legislative session, public school principals are required to report any and all incidents of bullying, cyber-bullying, harassment and intimidation.
Going along with new requirements from this passage, Pershing County School District Superintendent Dan Fox informed school board trustees, at their regular meeting June 25, that all school district staff and principals have been trained as to the legal definitions of the four incident types.
"Bullying has received a lot of media attention recently and we are very much in support of this law. I think there is some confusion sometimes as what is bullying under the law versus what is student-to-student conflict," Fox told the board.
The new statute requires principals to submit a Bullying, Harassment and Intimidation Report to the board for each semester on or before Jan. 1 and June 30. According to the second semester reports submitted to the board there was one incident of harassment and one of intimidation reported at Lovelock Elementary School and one intimidation incident reported at the middle school. Imlay Elementary and Pershing County High School did not report any incidents.
"It is also important to note that not all confrontations between students are incidents of bullying, harassment or intimidation, as those terms are specifically defined under NRS 388. All conflicts and confrontations are dealt with in a serious manner, but not all are required to be reported under NRS 388.1353," Fox said in a later e-mail interview.
According to subsection 2 of NRS 388.1353, the board must compile the reports and submit them to the Nevada Department of Education Public School Superintendent by Aug. 1. The public school superintendent must submit them to the Nevada Attorney General by Oct. 1.
In other news at the June 25 meeting:
• The school board held the first reading of the new district-wide employee drug and alcohol testing policy. This is the first drug and alcohol testing policy for the district, however, Fox did point out that previously employees of the transportation department were governed by federal regulations.
The policy is based on "Reasonable Suspicion." According to the policy, reasonable suspicion would include a workplace accident resulting in damage exceeding $500. Other reasonable suspicion would come from observance of conduct, odor and work performance that would indicate to the observer of possible drug or alcohol use or abuse by said employee.
The new policy will have its second reading at the July board of trustees meeting and then be set in place in time for the upcoming school year. Fox told the board that this is a district policy and not something that could be negotiated between the district and employee associations.
Pershing County School Board Trustee Anthony Moura questioned what action would be taken if there was a failed test. Fox replied that there would be a progressive format. Depending on the severity of the accident or of the failure of a test they could appeal and take another test.
"The intent of this is not to catch people and punish but to take corrective action if an employee has a problem, so on that, it would depend on the underlying circumstances and would be viewed on a case by case basis," Fox said.
Moura further questioned if the policy was the equivalent to the student drug and alcohol policy.
"I was just comparing it to students; if (they) fail a drug test on the first offense you're out for two weeks. There's nothing hard and fast with this (employee policy)?" Moura asked.
Fox said that the policy was very lengthy and he did not remember exactly but he thought that if there was a positive test the employee would be referred to counseling or evaluation and depending on that the results would vary.
Fox explained in a later e-mail interview, "Mandatory subjects of bargaining are set forth in NRS 288.150[2] which does not specifically detail if 'Drug and Alcohol Testing' can or cannot be negotiated. However, with that said, NRS 288.150[2] (i) states, 'Discharge and disciplinary procedures' can be negotiated, so there might be an avenue for it to be negotiable. Regardless, the Board identified this as important and is taking action to incorporate it into District Policy."
• The board approved a technology plan to carry the district from 2012 - 2016. The updated plan has four goals: to use technology to increase student learning; increase technological infrastructure and technical support; increase the communication aspect of technology between the schools, departments, district and community and continue providing professional development and training for staff and community through the use of technology.
If all goals are reached the district estimates it will cost $281,000.
"A lot will depend on how much funding we can get later on down the road," Fox said.
He explained that state funding for technology has "pretty much dried up," and that his hopes are to obtain grants for most of that amount.
• The board approved the school district's new insurance policy. Insurance appraisals are done every five years, Fox said. Since the last appraisal, replacement costs have increased $10 million due to the new solar, new buses and building improvements within the district, thereby increasing the insurance premium $23,665.
"The last few years it has held fairly steady, it is within reason," Fox said.
• The board of trustees approved a resolution augmenting the district's school lunch program by appropriating $36,373 for use within the program, increasing the 2011-2012 school lunch program fund from $301,287 to $337,660. According to the resolution the district determined that there was revenue collected that had not been anticipated in the 2011-2012 school lunch budget already submitted. In order for the district to include the $36,373 in the school lunch budget the addition had to be made by resolution, Fox told the board. The lunch program is its own separate account aside from the school district's general budget, he said.
• Fox publicly thanked Lisa Jensen for her work as the district's financial officer. He then reported that the Nevada Department of Taxation approved the district's final budget of $14,004,724.
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