RUNNING HEAD: SCHOOL POLICY REVIEW 1

School Policy Review

Scott Schnitzer

EA 742

Dr. Rodney Green

Oakland University

July 24, 2017

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Introduction:

Policy is something that every company, school, business, and organization has. It is the

way things are set to run, along with expectations and procedures to ensure these expectations

are met. By having policies, the expectations are made clear about various topics and outlines the

reason behind the policies.

In schools, policies are set for any and all topics. Schools use policy to ensure that the

rules and expectations are made clear from the beginning. Policies in schools range from

attendance policies to pick up and drop off to uniforms/dress code, to the way people enter the

building. It is important to have these in place to ensure the safety of all bodies in the building at

a given time. As well, the policies help answer questions someone might have about a topic. It

also is a way to protect the school/district if someone were to try and say they don’t feel a

consequence or situation were handled correctly. The school could refer back to the policy and

say this is what the expectation is, this is what happened, and here it is spelled out why we

handled it the way we did.

Policies ensure that organizations run smoothly. There are policies for all parties

involved; such as, in a school there are policies for students, parents, staff, visitors. These

policies and expectations ensure that the school is a safe place for everyone. As well, the policies

help everyone understand what is expected and what will happen if the policies are not followed.

Good policy helps reduce conflict and helps ease issues in the organization.

Review of School Code:

In my school, the School Board plays a different role than in public schools. In public

schools, the Board is there to set the policy and agree on what new items will be added or what

items will be taken out of the policy book. The Board is the one at the top who runs everything.
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In my school, this is not the case. Our company, NHA, makes the policies then sends them to the

individual schools. There are over eighty schools in the company, and from there the school

leadership looks at the policy with the board. The school board reviews the policy and can ask

for changes or clarification, but usually they will agree with it and it becomes policy.

On very rare occasions the board will recommend policy. Usually the board will just

follow suit with the company. There are exceptions, such as if the Board feels that there is need

to amend a policy, then they will offer suggestions to NHA on how to change the policy or

amend the policy to fit the school better.

Our company does allow for the schools to have a say in policy when it comes to meeting

the needs of students. NHA has a company-wide curriculum for most subjects. This is the policy

on what curriculum should be used in all of the schools. However, it is broken down and left to

the schools of how they will utilize the curriculum. The School Board then comes in and helps

decide how this will be enacted and what other resources may be needed in order to make the

school successful.

There are some states, like New York, that the Board and NHA bump heads. In New

York, DSQs/Superintendents are hired by the board but with approval from NHA. While talking

with my DSQ, he discussed a case where a principal in any other state would’ve been fired by

NHA for poor performance with moving the academic needle. However, the board liked the

principal and told NHA they did not agree with the decision. The principal remained for a little

bit longer, until the board finally heard what NHA was saying and saw that little progress was

being made in the school. The Board then fired the teacher and NHA signed off with the

agreement.
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Major Topics of Policy:

Across the board, most school policies are similar. While districts and companies have

varying levels of commonalities and differences, most schools will have policies on attendance,

behavior, safety, school activities, etc. Schools and districts will differ when it comes to things

like dress code/uniforms, use of electronics, transportation, pick up and drop off rules, etc.

Major topics of policy in schools include Academics such as Graduation requirements,

homework, award recognition, and field trips. There are Student Activities such as sports, after

school clubs, and at a secondary level the topic of student employment is discussed. Another

major topic discussed is Student Conduct which covers attendance, behavior, rights of

expression, and due process rights. Some schools also have transportation policies that cover

topics about bussing. Schools will also have miscellaneous policies for topics like school

vacations, report cards/conferences, and as of recent even birthday policies.

With all of these topics, there are also others that schools will look at. When looking at

my school and company, we have instructional policies created by NHA that include what

curriculum we will use. There are operational policies set such as our company-wide behavior

code. From there, it is up to schools to determine how the policies will be implemented. Schools

also determine things like what resources may be needed to ensure the curriculum meets the

needs of the students in the school. Under operational policies, schools may decide on the school

hours, parent engagement, master schedules, and dress code modifications.

Setting Policy:

As stated earlier, compared to most public schools where the Board creates the policy and

then it is sent down the ranks, at my school the company is the one who creates the policy. So for

instance, most schools the Board would say here are the policies for attendance. The Board
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would discuss and amend if needed then they would vote and approve it or change it. It would

then go to the superintendent and then to the leadership teams.

With NHA, the company creates the policies they want to be common at all schools.

While the School Board does not create the policies at this level, the Board may recommend

policies, but this barely happens at any schools in the company. Once the company has

established a new policy, it is sent to the school leadership teams.

The principal will present the policy with the Board members. As a team, everyone will

discuss and negotiate the policy until everyone is happy and it is the best fit for the school. Once

the members have voted, then the policy becomes effective at the school. If it does not pass, then

the members continue to discuss and negotiate until the policy meets the items required.

Overall, NHA has the final say in what policies are being made for the company, and

then the Board is given the policies to review and vote on before enacting the policies at the

school. The Board and school leadership team pick the sub-policies, but that is the extent to

which the Board creates and implements policies in NHA.

Implementation of Policy:

When policies are created, they move in a flow chart. It starts with NHA, then goes to the

board, then it goes to leadership, and finally it goes to the staff. The implementation is left up to

the school leadership team. With NHA, policies that impact certain areas, such as benefits and

HealthCare changes, come from our benefits team. If it is a school policy change then it is up to

the leadership team to implement the policy and communicate it.

With NHA, there are many teams that help implement policy change. There is a team that

is responsible for curriculum, a team for benefits, a team for payroll, a team for communications,

etc. Most policies are created and then left up to the schools to decide on how to implement and
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inform the staff. Most of the time, the policy will go into a handbook. If the handbook hasn’t

been created for the year, then it will be added in with some sort of reference point during Back

to School Professional Development.

Along with the handbook, the leadership team may just decide to send out an

email/written communication about the policy change or addition. NHA allows for the autonomy

of communications in its schools. This allows for the principal and leadership team to decide on

how they will announce the change and how it will be implemented.

During the implementation, the Board ensures the policy has been implemented and

communicated. However, the Board may require Action Plans of the school to understand how

the school is working towards the implementation. If the Board does not see progress in an area

of a policy, such as financials, then the Board requires the school to complete these Action Plans

to show what they are doing to meet the policy. The Action Plans may include policy pertaining

to academics, charter goals, or financials. Here, they have the right to solicit people to talk to

about the topic of concern. This means if there were an issue with staffing or enrollment, then

they may ask that someone from the enrollment/recruiting be at the next Board meeting.

Strengths and Weaknesses of System:

When looking at the system, there are many strengths to the way NHA creates and

implements policy. There are also weaknesses to this system. A strength that the system has is

that there are many policies that are companywide. With this, no matter which of the 80-

something schools in the company someone was to visit, they would be able to discuss the

similarities with seeing the policy being implemented. Another strength is that with the policy

being looked at, the school may choose to implement it a little different than one of the other

schools. The school team can talk to why they do the policy a little different than another school.
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These strengths also include the role the Board plays. There is more discussion taking

place with NHA creating the policy and then the Board and leadership team discussing what the

policy should look like in the school. This ensures that the policy meets the needs of all members

of the educational community. The autonomy of communication and implementation is a

strength for the system being utilized by the company.

While there are many strengths to the system, there are some downfalls. One of the

biggest downfalls is the fact that some states have laws that give the Board more power than the

company. In the example I discussed earlier, this seems like it would cause conflict of interests at

times. Instead of being able to move forward with their decisions, the company had to wait on

approval from the Board. Being able to match up for interviewing and hiring seems like it would

be difficult in these states as well for both the company and Board.

Conclusion:

Overall, policies affect how companies, organizations, and schools run. Policy changes

can impact the culture and morale, effectiveness of the organization, and functioning of the

organization. Through a system of links, schools work to pass policies that will benefit all

members of the educational community. The policies are there to let all members know what is

expected, how situations will be handled, and why it is in place.

When reviewing the policies in NHA, we saw that the company is the main policy

creator, then the Board negotiates on policies to fit the school, and then the policy is

communicated and implemented. There are very few times the Board recommends policies to

NHA; instead, they take the policies from NHA and then create sub-policies to fit the school and

utilize the policy created by NHA, such as the curriculum policy and supplemental resources.