Commitment to Standards
NEPN/NSBA Code: ADAA
SCHOOL SYSTEM COMMITMENT TO STANDARDS FOR ETHICAL AND RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR
The School Committee believes that promoting ethical and responsible behavior is an essential part of the district’s educational mission. The Committee recognizes that ethics, constructive attitudes, responsible behavior, and “character” are important if a student is to leave school as a “responsible and involved citizen,” as described in the Guiding Principles of the Maine Learning Results. The Committee also recognizes that Maine law requires the adoption of district-wide student codes of conduct consistent with statewide standards for student behavior developed by the Commissioner of the Department of Education in compliance with 20-A MRSA § 254(11).
The Committee seeks to create and maintain a school climate in which ethical and responsible behavior can flourish and believes that instilling a sense of ethics and responsibility in students requires setting positive expectations for student behavior as well as establishing disciplinary consequences for behavior that violates School Committee policy or school rules. Further, the Committee believes that in order to teach ethical and responsible behavior, adults who interact with students must strive to model and reinforce ethical and responsible behavior. To that end, the Committee supports an active partnership between and among schools, parents and students.
Recognizing that collaboratively identified core values are the foundation for a school culture that encourages and reinforces ethical and responsible student behavior, the Committee is committed to the establishment and implementation of a process for identifying shared values and setting and enforcing standards for behavior, including prescription of consequences for unacceptable behavior. The process for identifying such shared values will invite and include the participation of School Committee members, school administrators, staff, parents, students, and the community. Core values will be reviewed periodically, with opportunity for public participation. The Committee will direct the Superintendent/designee to develop a process to assess school system progress toward achievement of an ethical and responsible school culture.
Following the identification of core values, the Committee, with input from administrators, staff, parents, students, and members of the community, will adopt and review codes of student conduct consistent with statewide standards for student behavior that shall, as required by law:
Define unacceptable student behavior;
Establish standards of student responsibility for behavior;
Prescribe consequences for violation of codes of conduct, including first-time violations, when appropriate;
Describe appropriate procedures for referring students in need of special services to those services;
Establish criteria to determine when further assessment of a current Individual Education Plan (IEP) is necessary, based on removal of the student from class;
Establish policies and procedures concerning the removal of disruptive or violent students from a classroom or a school bus, as well as student disciplinary and placement decisions, when appropriate; and
Establish guidelines and criteria concerning the appropriate circumstances when the Superintendent/designee may provide information to the local police or other appropriate law enforcement authorities regarding an offense that involves violence committed by any person on school grounds or other school property.
Students, parents, staff, and the community will be informed of the codes of student conduct through handbooks and/or other means selected by the Superintendent/designee.
Ethics and Curriculum
The School Committee encourages examination and discussion of ethical issues within content areas of the curriculum, as appropriate. The Committee also encourages schools to provide students with meaningful opportunities to apply values and ethical and responsible behavior through activities such as community service, peer mediation and student government/leadership development.
Legal Reference: 20-A MRSA §§ 254, 1001(15)
Cross Reference: School Committee policies governing codes of student conduct are provided under section J: Students.
Adopted: March 31, 2011
