Obion County Board of Education
August 10, 2009
Agenda Item: VII.

Old Business
Consider/Approve Amendment to Board Policy #4.605 - Graduation Requirements
Consider/Approve Amendment to Board Policy #5.305 - Family and Medical Leave

Preliminary Matters:

The Board amended Board Policy #4.605, Graduation Requirements, at its first meeting in June, which amended the “STUDENT LOAD” section of the policy.

As set forth on TSBA’s proposed policy, our policy needs to be updated as follows:

  • Insert the heading “Requirements for students who entered the 9th grade prior to the 2009 – 2010 school year;” between the third and fourth paragraphs of our current policy.
  • Insert lines 29 – 33 of TSBA’s proposed policy before our “Student Load” section.
  • Insert the entire section “Special Education Students” of TSBA’s proposed policy before our “Student Load” section, striking the number “22” in both places and inserting after “units of credit” “as set forth below

Board Policy #4.605 was revised in response to changes in the Tennessee State Department of Education regulations that implement the Diploma Project. For example, beginning with 9th graders who enter high school during the 2009 – 2010 school year, the Gateway tests are being replaced with End-of-Course tests.

TSBA’s proposed additions to Board Policy #5.305 are major changes. Due to the complexity of the Family Medical Leave Act, we have always counted on TSBA to keep our policy current with the changing law. TSBA recommends addition of the underlined language to our current policy. The changes were prompted by new military leave provisions. The new leave provisions allow up to 26 weeks of leave in a single twelve-month period for qualifying exigencies. However, the leave is only available one time; therefore, system employees will have to track such leave when and if the leave is requested. Our current policy is referenced for information only.

Staff Recommendation:

I recommend adoption of the amendments to Board Policies ##4.605 and 5.305 on second and final reading.