Clifton school board removes ‘gender’ language from local policies

The Clifton Independent School District’s Board of Education approved amending four local district policies during its regular meeting on Monday, February 26.

Two other policies up for consideration were tabled upon further review until the next meeting.

The board listened for an hour to parents, grandparents, and other community members who voiced their opinion about the proposed changes.

The trustees then deliberated with their legal counsel for another hour during an executive session.

The school board meeting was held in the high school cafeteria half filled with audience members. Around another 200 people listened to the meeting live on video streaming through social media.

During the public comment period, 17 people had signed up to speak, though 16 of them spoke mostly on the same subject: removing gender-based language from the district’s policies.

The six policies for consideration for amending included:

• FFH (LOCAL) – Student Welfare: Freedom from Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation.

• FFI (LOCAL) – Student Welfare: Freedom from Bullying.

• FNH (LOCAL) – Student Rights and Responsibilities: Student and Parent Complaints / Grievances.

• FO (LOCAL) – Student Discipline.

• DGBA (LOCAL) – Personnel Management Relations: Employee Complaints / Grievances.

• FI (LOCAL) – Identification of Students.

FFH (LOCAL), FFI (LOCAL), FNH (LOCAL), and FO (LOCAL) were each separately amended by a nearly unanimous vote with motions made by trustee Josh Ritzman and seconded by Matt Domal.

Board trustees Domal, Alex Montes, Julie New, Ritzman, and Heather Willmann voted in favor of the changes. Trustee Jan Zuehlke abstained. Trustee Courtney Mayfield was not present for the meeting.

DGBA (LOCAL) and FI (LOCAL) were tabled with a unanimous vote by all trustees present.

During public comment period, retired lawyer Pam Denney recommended that the board table all action on the proposed amendments, waiting for lawsuits concerning gender-based language in another school district in Texas to resolve.

Those who spoke in favor of the proposed amendments were Riney Jordan, Larry Dahl, Murray Wise, Tater Pascal, Michelle Mitchell, Bud Ritzman, Bruce Greene, Krista Ritzman, Candice Barsh, Jeff Wise, Cliff Kennedy, and Josh Tracey.

At least half of those in favor of the proposal had children or grandchildren enrolled at Clifton ISD campuses.

Among the points made for passing the amendments were based on preserving moral ground, children’s safety, and competitive sports.

Parent Jeff Hampton encouraged the trustees to table action on the proposed amendments in the name of transparency, so the rest of the community could review and discuss them more thoroughly.

Parent Cal Schlumpf disagreed with the proposed policy changes, noting that the trustees should focus more time on improving the children’s education.

Parent and public school teacher Natalie Brooks expressed her wish that more folks would work together with more passion toward boosting school morale, supporting local teachers, promoting reading comprehension, and paying attention to state testing.

Prior to the board’s votes, Ritzman clarified that he originally brought forth the discussion about amendments for consideration by the trustees.

“There was nothing being pushed into the school. This initiative was brought about by me to try to clarify our policies in accordance with federal law,” he said. “I was trying to push a few words out of our policies to streamline them for our administration.”

Ritzman continued, “Nobody is trying to push anything from the school. Nobody’s trying to push anything on the board. Nobody is trying to push anything on any of the campuses.”

Contracts

After a short executive session, the board approved one-year contract extensions for the campus principals, athletic director, curriculum director, technology director, ESL director, and the special education director.

The extensions came with the recommendation from Supt. Andy Ball.

School chaplains

The board approved a resolution allowing local pastors to serve as “school chaplains” in the school district.

Supt. Ball said he recommended the resolution because participating clergy in the Clifton Ministerial Alliance already perform this service.

In addition, the resolution Ball supported would not dissolve the district’s current school counselors.

According to Senate Bill 763, the state-wide deadline to approve the school chaplain’s resolution was set for March 1, 2024.

Mid-year testing data The principals of Clifton Elementary School and Clifton Middle School presented data on their students’ testing using the NWEA MAP software.

Budget amendments The board approved eight budget amendments suggested by business manager Lisa Prescher.

Budget workshop

The board set the date for a spring-time budget workshop for the next regularly scheduled board meeting on Monday, March 18.

Consent agenda

The board approved the consent agenda which included the minutes from January 22, 2024, regular meeting and the TAPR hearing.