Belen Schools child policy rewritten, approved
Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 11:00pm
The Belen Consolidated Schools Board of Education voted unanimously tonight to approve a policy that allows the children of district employees to spend time at work with their parents, gutting language that had suggested employees’ children would be banned from district workplaces.
The district has always allowed employees’ children at work but decided months back to try to put it in writing as a policy to deal with unruly and unsupervised children.
The initial policy proposed by two board members stirred controversy because it appeared to be an outright ban on employees’ children. That early draft said that “the children of employees shall not be present at the workplace except when they attend the same school where the parent/guardian is employed.”
“We shrunk it down and simplified it,” said Board President Jamie Goldberg, adding, “It started out as a page and a half and it was just ambiguous.”
The child policy approved tonight was reduced to this:
The Belen Consolidated School District allows employees to bring children to the workplace for short periods of time. If the child causes disruptions or poses a safety concern, this privilege may be denied at the discretion of the employee’s supervisor. The employee is responsible for his/her own child at all times unless the child in under the supervision of the school. BCS assumes no responsibility or liability for the child of an employee in the workplace.
The policy debate had produced a division on the board for nearly two months, with three of the five board members opposed to much of the first and second drafts of the policy.
Board members tweaked the language of the final version during debate just before tonight’s vote.
“I’d like it to be very clearly stated that we are allowing children at the work site,” said Board Member Sammy Chavez, a concession he got in the final version by removing and adding a few words.
Superintendent Patricia Rael said the primary concern in employee feedback she received was that the board should be clear about whether or not employees’ children were allowed at work.
According to an addendum to the policy, any district employee wanting his or her child to spend time at a district site will need to fill out a form outlining the terms.
The employee is responsible for the supervision of his or her child. The employee’s supervisor — most often a principal — is expected to decide how to handle children who are disruptive or a safety risk.
“We can pass all the policy we want here,” said Board Member Julian Luna. “But it’s going to depend on the supervisors at these locations to ensure that it works. It’s very common sense to me.”
