LAS Board of Education Recap: Continued Title IX Policies Discussion

The Lowell Area Schools Board of Education met Monday evening for their regularly scheduled monthly work session. All board members were present at the meeting.

Public Comments

Three people spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting.

Stefanie Boone, an Ada resident whose children attend LAS through the Schools of Choice program, said in her public comments that the district “refuses to be transparent” about some of the books in LAS schools. She said parents aren’t aware of books in the libraries, adding:

“…you refuse to put together a system that labels books based on content, and I don’t know why that is…we could have the novels read, labeled and catalogued appropriately so that parents can decide if they want their children to be exposed to sexually explicit material or not prior to being exposed to it. Your system is backwards right now. It requires students to first be exposed to sexually explicit, illegal material, and then parents have to find out after the fact and ask the school to please not let their children be exposed.”

Boone focused her comments on one book in particular: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. She read an excerpt from the book that she called “sexually explicit” out loud to the audience and the board.

The 2012 novel is by Jesse Andrews, and a School Library Journal review rates the book for grade 9 and up. LAS has one copy of this novel, and it is shelved at Lowell High School as a book suggested for seniors only. If a student younger than a senior attempts to check out the book, parents are contacted for guidance. Parents are also always able to place restrictions on what their children have access to in the library by contacting Christine Beachler, District Librarian.

Lowell resident Sue Arsulowicz requested of the board that when reviewing and voting on district policies in meetings, they list the policy number on the meeting’s agenda “…so the public can do their own research before the meeting.” Arsulowicz also requested that the policies be displayed on an overhead projector so that the audience may have a visual representation of what is being discussed.

Lowell resident and former LAS educator Kim Lum said that she appreciated the long-standing community organization Lowell Arts and their efforts to be “…a place that welcomes all people with all different kinds of talents…” She said she appreciates the efforts of Lowell Area Schools to also be welcoming of all kinds of students.

Academic Achievement

Director of Curriculum Dan VanderMeulen presented the board with a summary of the standardized testing scores for the district from the spring of 2024.

VanderMeulen prefaced the information with a reminder that test scores can be viewed as “…a snapshot of that given day, of that given time…I think our students are more than just a score on an M-STEP test or a score on a PSAT test. There’s lots of different ways that we gauge learning…”.

VanderMeulen said that when looking at how other districts in Kent County and in the State of Michigan performed, LAS is in the top third for scores for the M-STEP, PSAT and SAT. Overall, the district is performing well, and scores are trending up. He added that there will always be areas for improvement, and those areas give administrators and educators a chance to look at curriculum, look at the systems in place for helping students who struggle, and to make improvements as necessary.

Attendance

Superintendent Nate Fowler briefly presented some data to the board regarding attendance statistics, and more specifically, trends in the percentage of students in the district who have have been classified as chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism is defined as a student who misses 10% or more of school days. For example, a student who, out of 180 scheduled school days, misses 18 or more would be considered chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism is different than truancy, which would be defined as having 10 or more unexcused absences in a school year.

Because of the pandemic, there are no reliable statistics for attendance in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. However, for the 2015-16 and 2018-19 school years, the percentage of students who were chronically absent was 7.80% and 11%, respectively. When those numbers are compared to the 2022-23 and 2023-24 attendance rates, chronic absenteeism took quite a jump, with 19.40% chronically absent in 2022-23 and 17.70% last school year.

The hope is that the percentage of chronically absent students continues to decline as we get further from the pandemic. The attendance goal for the district is 5 or fewer absences per school year, and for those students who are chronically absent, the plan is to reach out to those families to see what, if any, help is needed.

Facilities and Operations

The facilities and operations team meets next week to look at the schematic design of Cherry Creek Elementary School. The board will be provided with an update on that at next month’s meeting, as well as an update about the high school track project.

The administrative building will be getting a new sidewalk and curb along High Street as part of the repaving project near the building.

Personnel

Paraeducators who need medical or behavioral training to work with students are currently receiving that training, and all new staff are receiving CPR and first aid training as well.

In October, staff from human resources, special education and the curriculum department will receive recertification training in crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques.

Finance

The finance department started training Monday for the new finance software, specifically on finance in general. Training on payroll programming will happen after that.

ESSER grants from the state have now come to a close.

Title IX Revisions Discussion

In reference to Arsulowicz’s request that board policies under revision be made available via the agenda and on an overhead projector during meetings, Fowler said he liked those ideas and would look at ways to implement both in the coming months.

The board then moved into a discussion of revised Title IX federal regulations. A vote on this matter was delayed from the September regular meeting so that the board could consider the issue further during this work session.

Fowler shared with the board a summary of the revisions. Notable changes include defining sexual harassment more broadly and providing more protections for victims. With the current policy, a school district’s responsibility to respond to off-campus incidents of sexual harassment is limited, whereas the new revisions would broaden that responsibility for the school district to respond if an incident like assault were causing disruption in the school setting. The 2024 policies would also be more streamlined, allowing for a single investigator for incidents, and specifying that investigations be “reasonably prompt” while still being thorough. The 2024 policy also expands mandatory reporting to include all school employees.

The new policy would expand protections for LGBTQ students, and Fowler noted that many of the public comments at the September 9 board meeting centered around concerns about how this could change district procedure.

To address this more directly, Fowler asserted that, “If we had transgender students who were bringing a request forward to school officials, this would be an example where I don’t see the process changing very much in terms of how we would respond…”. The superintendent said the process would include meeting with students and their families and finding a safe and secure arrangement for all students. He said this could mean use of a single stall bathroom or alternate changing areas if needed.

Addressing some public comments about student safety in bathrooms and locker rooms, Fowler said, “I feel good about the systems we have in place to…keep people who may be looking to do harm out of those spaces…we do have cameras that monitor who goes in and who goes out…”.

Fowler noted that whether or not the Title IX revisions are adopted into district policy, LGBTQ students are protected against discrimination in the State of Michigan by the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. So the adoption of Title IX does not change the fact that these student populations are already a protected class.

Fowler also specified that not adopting the revised policies could expose the district to some risk. Specifically, if there was a Title IX violation and the district had not adopted the federal revisions, a complaint could be filed by the Office of Civil Rights.

Board President Brian Krajewski said that he’d like more discussion about how the adoption of the revisions would actually impact district procedures, saying, “…what would change in how we act?” Fowler responded that “very little” would change.

Board member Jennifer Dougherty asked directly, “…would our bathroom procedures change from what we’re doing now?” Fowler once again said that he didn’t anticipate any change in bathroom policy.

Dougherty clarified that as a school district, LAS already makes an effort to not discriminate against people based on gender identity because of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act and that any perceived discrimination is what would trigger a Title IX complaint. She added that the bulk of the revisions address how a district responds to a complaint.

She also asked for some clarification regarding transgender athletes and how the adoption of revised policies might affect how the district responds in those situations. Fowler answered that athletics is not addressed or included as part of the revised regulations, and LAS would continue to follow guidelines put forth by the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

Board member Jared Blough asked about overnight school trips and whether, “…a student, a male student, rooms with the girls or whatever, a transgender student, is that, under the new rule do we have to advertise that, that student’s going to room with those girls?”

In response, Fowler said that there was no specific policy regarding that and to his knowledge, that had never been a consideration. He added that, “…when we have overnight trips, there’s careful consideration that is given to roommates and who’s going to be sharing a room. There’s careful consideration given to who the adults are that are in charge of groups of students.”

Ultimately, the board discussed that if there were additional questions regarding the proposed adoption of Title IX revisions, those should be addressed with Fowler or with Krajewski over the next several weeks. Then, they would determine together whether to include a vote at the next meeting or whether to delay a vote again.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 pm. The next board meeting will be held in the administrative office on Monday, October 14, at 7 pm. The public is always welcome to attend.