Committee approves Section A review of policy manual and tables wellness, food‑service sections for further work

The Blackstone‑Millville Regional School Committee approved a review of Section A of the district policy manual at its April 28 meeting and voted to table two specific policy sections — ADF (wellness) and ADA (student food services/account) — for further review.

Committee members said they were aligning district language with Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) recommendations and noted that much of the Section A update is templated material provided by MASC. A committee member said the district previously engaged MASC for a comprehensive revision in 2017 and continues to pay an annual service fee (cited in discussion as approximately $969) to maintain searchable, up‑to‑date policy language.

The motion to approve the Section A review while tabling ADF and ADA was made by Dan and seconded by Tara; the committee approved the motion unanimously with an all‑aye voice vote.

Committee discussion flagged one operational detail: adding DCF (Department of Children and Families) background checks as an extra precaution for volunteers and certain staff. Tammy Lemieux added that the district already runs those checks in practice, saying, “we also run dcf checks,” and the committee agreed to include the check in forthcoming policy language.

Members discussed whether to restore the last‑voted wellness language or draft a new policy for ADF, with several favoring returning the wellness committee to review the options and produce a recommended replacement. The committee agreed to reconvene the wellness committee and to bring a revised ADF back for consideration rather than adopt final wellness changes at the meeting.

The committee recorded no objections to tabling the items and moved on to other agenda business.

Next steps: the wellness committee will be reconvened to draft and recommend changes to ADF (wellness) and ADA (student food services) for future committee action.