Board members reviewed draft administrative language stating that students shall not be required to perform work or services that may be detrimental to their health and debated whether the phrase was too broad. Members asked for examples and clearer modifiers to avoid creating unintended consequences.
Why it matters: The policy affects what supervisors may assign to students during school activities and carries potential liability and disciplinary implications.
Discussion: Several members said the phrase "detrimental to their health" is broad and could be interpreted to include mental-health harms or typical student responsibilities. Members discussed specific instances that informed their concerns: whether students should be assigned cleaning tasks after disciplinary incidents; whether students should be asked to perform physically risky tasks (for example, standing on stacked furniture to hang decorations); and whether the policy should list categories of prohibited tasks (heavy lifting, exposure to hazardous materials, tasks requiring tools or working at unsafe heights).
Members agreed the administrative policy is valuable to give supervisors guidance and to prevent unsafe assignments. Suggestions included adding a clarifying adjective (for example, "hazardous" or "unsafe") or providing illustrative examples in administrative guidelines rather than leaving a single, broad sentence. Staff were asked to bring back refined wording and examples used in administrative guidelines.
No formal vote was taken; the board expressed support for retaining a protective standard while seeking clearer, actionable language.