Waunakee policy committee moves several administrative policies to full board; updates child-abuse reporting guidance

The Waunakee Community School District policy committee voted on a package of administrative items and discussed staff guidance on artificial intelligence during its meeting on Jan. 16.

Lisa John (role not specified) presented an updated reporting-of-abuse-and-neglect sample policy that staff said follows recommendations from WASB and other reviewers. "There are always gray areas, which is why even in our policy language and really our practice, the first step is to consult," John said, describing a practice of consulting student services or administration and reporting when uncertainty remains.

Committee members pressed staff on training for mandatory reporters and how volunteers would be handled. Staff said annual required professional development and building-level social work presentations will be used to refresh staff, and that volunteers who are board-approved would be required to follow the same training and review processes.

The committee also approved motions to move several other policies to the full board for consideration: a newly drafted background-checks policy covering employees and volunteers; a district-level procurement policy tied to federal grant rules; an expanded management-of-capital-assets policy formalizing capitalization and disposal procedures; and a cybersecurity management plan to formalize server-security procedures and selected elements of the NIST framework. For each of those items staff told the committee the district already follows the operational controls being codified and that the changes primarily create clearer board-level policy language.

On artificial intelligence, staff described proposed AI guidance as training material rather than a formal policy because the tools and vendor landscape change rapidly. The guidelines will be added to in-service materials and will limit plagiarism-detection tools to a small set approved after privacy-review checks.

The committee also approved renumbering and retaining a longstanding internal mail-and-delivery policy; staff noted the district continues to operate an internal mail service. Several motions were carried to send these items to the full board; the transcript records affirmative responses from committee members, with final consideration to occur at a future full-board meeting.

What happens next: The full board will receive the policies for possible approval at an upcoming meeting. Staff told the committee they will provide training materials and implementation guidance along with the packet to support full-board consideration.