The Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) are set to meet again on Tuesday, May 26. Here are a few of the items they are expected to discuss.
Safe Sports Proposal
Virtually every high school varsity interscholastic athletic contest in New Hampshire requires an on-site athletic trainer and for Manchester’s three public high schools, trainers licensed by the Safe Sports Network have been on hand free of charge for nearly two decades.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic jeopardized the required fundraising needed to keep that arrangement in place.
Manchester isn’t alone, with several other school districts across New Hampshire facing similar funding requests to keep athletic trainers going when school sports return.
Non-Voting Meetings
It’s been discussed in the past and now the BOSC is set to finalize a split of their meetings into “regular” and “working” meetings, with the latter being dedicated to just discussion.
Under the proposed change to BOSC rules, regular meetings would be held on the second session of the month and working meetings would be held on the fourth Monday of the month. Any items requiring a vote that are discussed during the working meetings would be pushed to the next regular meeting, barring any unscheduled special meetings agreed upon by the BOSC for urgent matters.
During months with school vacations or months where scheduled meetings are set to occur on a holiday, the BOSC Vice-Chair can set the meeting date under the proposed rule change.
Transfer of Longterm Suspension Authority
Under New Hampshire Revised Statute Annotated (RSA) Chapter 193:13 I(b), school boards or their representatives are authorized to suspend students for more than 10 days following a hearing.
Due to the pandemic, Manchester School District Superintendent Dr. John Goldhardt is asking the BOSC to grant this authority to himself, Assistant Superintendent Jen Gillis and Assistant Superintendent Amy Allen until June 30 due to the difficulties faced in remote meetings for students, families and the BOSC conduct committee.
