Revamp of Brevard Public Schools' student code of conduct kicks off with first work session

Brevard Public Schools kicked off the district's first discipline work group session this week, with members of the public offering suggestions to improve the student code of conduct ahead of the 2024-2025 school year.

While official recommendations to the board for next year's code of conduct won't be made for months to come, areas of concern were addressed by a diverse group of attendees ranging from a student to Titusville's mayor, with a handful of attendees pre-selected by board members.

The current code, which lays out appropriate student behaviors and disciplinary actions, was approved at an Aug. 8 board meeting. Officials hope to better define behaviors and corrective actions for next year's version with community input.

"Our goal is to ... have a finalized code of conduct in that April/May time," said Chris Reed, director of student services. "We didn't have that code of conduct in April or May this year, and it made it very difficult for schools with some of the changes we were making to have the strongest possible start."

More sessions are slated over the next few months.

How was the meeting structured?

About 40 people gathered at the district's board room for Wednesday's meeting, including a student, parents, teachers, school resource officers, NAACP members, Titusville mayor Daniel Diesel, county commissioner John Dittmore and others.

Each school board member had also selected two people each to attend the meeting, including Dittmore, Diesel, Angela Bentley-Henry, Matthew Woodside, Kendra Schuerer, Katie Delaney, Annamaria Curry, Niekema Hudson, Vanessa Manning and Wyatt Stumbo.

The meeting was led by Reed and Pamela Dampier, assistant superintendent for student services.

Members of the public were assigned to five specific tables, with each tabled tasked with a different part of the code of conduct to review. These sections under review included the definitions of student behavior split between two tables and definitions of corrective strategies split between two tables, while those at the fifth table were to consider drafting a definition for hate-related incidents.

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Groups were allowed 30 minutes to discuss their sections of the code among themselves, then given several minutes each to present their work to the room. Their work, written on poster-size papers, were then put around the room, and individuals could put stickers next to suggestions — green stickers for suggestions they liked, and red stickers for suggestions they disagreed with.

The work from each group was collected by representatives from student services and will be reviewed by them to be presented to the school board down the road.

What concerns did the groups raise?

Largely, the groups asked for more specific definitions, and for more guidance to be given around disciplinary actions.

The fifth group helped define a hate-related offense, which the district does not have a category for at this time. Members of the group defined who fits into a protected category, and said they would like children to be taught that the intent of their actions doesn't always equal impact.

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There was also a chance for individuals to discuss concerns with Reed and Dampier after the group sessions, at which time concerns were raised about evidence based discipline interventions, evidence based drug intervention, there being too many corrective actions, the use of trauma-sensitive discipline and the idea that there should be an option for administrators to use discretion to discipline students.

When are the next meetings?

Three more meetings are scheduled to take place over the course of the school year, all starting at 5 p.m. in the board room. Reed gave a brief overview of the topics to be discussed at future meetings.

• Nov. 2 — review session one's feedback; look at incidents and possible corrective actions.

• Jan. 11 — review session two's feedback; further define battery, physical aggression, fighting, hate-related offenses; discuss dress code and wireless devices.

• Feb. 8 — review session three's feedback; other topics to be determined.

The goal is to have a finalized code of conduct in April or May, with recommendations being presented to the school board in March.

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Revamp of Brevard's student code of conduct kicks off in work session