By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LUTCHER – The St. James Parish School Board has tentatively approved the student handbook for the 2012-13 school year but is still waiting on word from the state before the policy manual can be finalized.

“This is where we need to be at this point, but there is a new policy from the state department,” said Superintendent Alonzo Luce.

The policy in question deals with a student’s right to an appeal hearing on suspension decisions. A new policy from the state suggests the superintendent now has the power to bypass due process, but the language of the law is unclear, so the district has, for the time being, left in language outlining the hearing process until the state clarifies the matter.

Otherwise, the handbook is much like last year’s. Only two notable changes have been made. The first deals with the locations of the district’s alternative programs. Last year, the St. James Alternative Program was housed in St. John the Baptist Parish, but the grant that allowed that arrangement has run out so the program will move back to St. James Parish for the upcoming school year. Grades K-sixth will be housed at Lutcher Elementary while grades seventh-12th will be housed at the Career and Technology Center.

Also a minor change has been made to the uniform policy. The new policy states, “Heels should be no more than two inches high.”

Policies regarding the school board and district employees were also up for approval Tuesday, but the board, at Luce’s suggestion, only approved a portion of them.

Among the approved policies was one dealing with annual leave that refined the language of the existing policy. Under the new policy, employees will begin accruing vacation time as soon as employment begins rather than being given a lump sum after so much time on the job. It also stipulates that employees may have no more than 20 days of vacation time accrued at one time.

Another policy that received a slight adjustment for the upcoming school year deals with the district’s Medical Leave Assistance Program whereby an employee may help out one of their colleagues by donating sick days if that employee has run out of sick time. The policy now stipulates that any one employee may only donate 10 days per year. Also, employees may only donate days to employees with the same status as them whether they are exempt or non-exempt.

A portion of the policies were not approved at the meeting because they were recently amended by attorney Bob Hammonds in light of the laws that were recently passed by the Legislature. These policies will be up for approval at the next school board meeting after board members have had a chance to review them.

Lastly, the school board approved a $1 million bid from Brown’s Dairy for milk for the upcoming school year. Brown’s Dairy outbid Kleinpeter Farms for the contract.