A parent comes directly to the school board with a grievance about head lice screening by the school nurse while totally ignoring the chain of command in the school district. Rather than direct the parent to address her problem with the school nurse, the board president and superintendent permit a wide ranging discussion while totally ignoring the rights of the nurse to choose to have such a discussion heard in executive session.
With all due respect the Mullica Township School District needs to have a policy which includes a grievance procedure for parents when they have a problem such as the head lice issue. In this instance the procedure would have required the parent to begin by making an appointment with school nurse to discuss her concerns about the process used for the head lice screening. If after a conference with the school nurse, the parent still was not satisfied, then the next step of procedure would have been for her to make an appointment with the nurse's immediate supervisor which would probably be the building principal. If her concerns were not met at that level she could then go on up the line to the superintendent. The final step would be a formal written grievance which would go to the board and be discussed in executive session in order to protect the rights of the employee. The board's decision on the resolution of this grievance would be final unless the parent decided to take the issue on up the line to the State Commissioner of Education, The State Board of Education and ultimately the court system.
I am fairly certain that such a grievance procedure must exist in the MTSD as I believe it is mandated by the State. If this is the case, the board president and superintendent should have immediately ended any discussion and insisted that this process be followed. Should they continue to allow the public airing of grievances concerning individual employees, they may soon find themselves immersed in legal action. Also, if parents feel free to bring every little problem directly to the board level, there will be some very long meetings in the months ahead.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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9 comments:
The State does mandate chain of command be followed on all School Board issues and clearly chain of command was not followed here.
Last Time I checked this was a public format and being that the parents along with the rest of the citizens of Mullica pay taxes to support the school, they, (the parents and citizens), are the command. Assuming that the previous post is from a school official and not a concerned parent or citizen, suck it up and deal with it, we pay your salary!
If not, I respect your opinion and have a great day full of joy and happiness, you seem to need it!
How do you know this parent did not follow this imaginary "chain of command"?
BTW, If any parent of this township has the handbook where this supposed rule is, please let the rest of us know.
I was at this school board meeting. May I just say, that not one person spoke bad about any employee. Yes, they asked a question or two about the school's policies concerning head lice. They also asked about the nurses procedures and told them what their child had told them, but that was it. It was a board member who brought up this employee's credentials when no one even asked about them. From what I understand, a letter was sent home the day after this meeting concerning the head lice. Obviously this parent got their point across. Kudos to them! Maybe more parents will start attending these meetings and speaking their mind. Last time I checked, we still had freedom of speech.
I'm sorry but the proceedure of checking all the children's heads with the same comb was outrageous for a trained professional and I'm glad it was brought out in the open and not swept under the rug.
I can see approaching a school employee on petty matters but I think something that is serious and affects many children should be brought directly to the board and be made public.
I do not consider head lice a small matter. Regardless of chain of command or not. This is a matter which should have been addressed last year. There is a problem when children are sent homne on Monday return to school on a Wednesday and than are sent home on Friday with the same problem. Thank you to the parent who spoke up. Maybe more parents should do the same after all they do pay school taxes in this township.
Anyone from the general public is allowed to make public comment at a school board meeting. The board cannot make a policy delaying and/or forbidding those who have children attending the school from making public comment at school board meetings. That would constitute selective discrimination, which is a violation of the NJ State Constitution. The ACLU could absolutely take action if the school board takes this approach.
There is only one nurse at the school. There is not any director of nurses at the school for a parent to go. I am glad that this parent went to the board, after she gave a letter to the supt'd. The supt'd tried to blow it all off at the meeting, stating that there is only one concerned parent. He circumvented and skirted around the issue. Several others responded and expressed their concern at the meeting. A lot goes on within the school that the board does not know about. They won't know unless people come and tell them.
The one who posted this has some control issues. The post is not ending the story as arrogantly entitled. The school nurse is supposed to attend the public session at the next school board meeting. Perhaps an oversensitive school employee posted this. This post demonstrates the notion that NJEA is the strongest and most arrogant union in the state.
It is nice that the school sent a letter of reassurance to the families. However, they sent an inaccurate article written by a non-clinical journalist from Wikepedia. Wikipedia is in the same category as MySpace and FaceBook. The article pictures combing ends of long hair, with caption incorrectly stating that conditioner diagnoses and treats lice. Lice live near the scalp, not the ends of long hair. Conditioner can make lice treatment products ineffective or less effective. Every manufacturers' bottle at the pharmacy states not to use conditioner or shampoos containing such. The article also mis-quotes clinical journals mentioning no-nit policies. These clinical journal articles state that these mass screening and no-nit practices are inappropriate and should be abandoned. The journalist does not even grasp the main idea of these clinical journal articles. I would hope that school policy and nursing procedures are not based on such summaries of a journalist. A credible medical article and photos of all stages of nits, larvae and lice would be more helpful. Organizations with research-based guidlines has already been posted by someone.
1:40 am That's a good post. I agree with you. You have listed several new items of information.
A board of education meeting is a meeting held in public, but not a public meeting. The public is invited to comment at certain times during a meeting. If the comment concerns a staff member, the board can and should choose not to discuss this with the commenter, and refer the concern to the school administration to be dealt with appropriately. In a case where the board has to discuss the job performance of a staff member, this would normally take place in executive session unless the staff member opts to have it discussed in public session. A letter (called a Rice letter) is sent to the staff member giving him or her this option.
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