Ridgefield policy committee recommends repealing outdated student policies, defers two items to April

Miss Moore, co‑chair of the policy committee, opened the March 27 meeting by saying the committee wants to “clean up our policy book” and recommended repeal of two legacy student policies, 5,000 and 5,010, which were adopted in October 2011 and are not legally required.

The committee cited legal counsel Shipman & Goodwin’s audit. “We don’t want to be in a position where we’re trying to track down old policies that are sitting in a budget book,” Dr. Susie Da Silva said, endorsing counsel’s recommendation to repeal the two policies. Committee members agreed to bring items a and b to the full board for a first read.

The panel also discussed regulation 5133, which addresses behavior at athletic events. Committee members said much of the regulation’s operational language is reflected in last year’s policy 5114 and in student handbooks, and agreed that 5133 can be removed because it is not a board-adopted policy. Miss Moore said she will note the removal during her chair update to the full board.

On other agenda items, Miss Moore proposed moving two items — identified in the packet as “letter c, policy 5,141.21 (administration of student medications in school)” and “letter i, policy 3,100 (board budget procedures)” — to the April meeting to allow more time for review; the committee consented.

The committee reviewed additional policies for first reading at the board level, including an updated foreign-exchange student policy (packet label f, shown in materials as 5 1 1 1.1) and a vandalism-by-minors policy (g, policy 5 1 3 1.5). Dr. Da Silva noted the foreign-exchange regulation retains an operational cap “up to 2” students (in the regulation rather than the policy) to preserve flexibility around class sizes. The vandalism provisions and possible restitution remain covered in the student discipline policy (5114) and in student handbooks.

The committee did not take final votes on repeals at this meeting; instead, it forwarded recommended repeals and revised policies to the full Ridgefield School District board for first readings and scheduled two items for an April follow‑up.