Southbridge Policy Subcommittee Adopts Section A Updates, Advances Through School Committee Governance Policies

SOUTHBRIDGE -- April 16, 2026, Southbridge's School Committee Policy Subcommittee approved eleven policy changes Thursday in a wide-ranging review of the district's policy manual led by a Massachusetts Association of School Committees consultant. Chair Stephanie Rivers and members Martina Shea and Norma Tislik worked through all of Section A and the first half of Section B with MASC consultant Tracy Novak, who is guiding the district's ongoing policy manual overhaul. Key actions included updating the tobacco prohibition policy to explicitly cover vaping and electronic cigarettes, renaming and modernizing the district's background check policy using model language developed with the Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services in 2022, removing three outdated exhibit documents from the policy manual, and adopting two new school committee governance policies, BA and BAA, covering operational goals and self-evaluation procedures. The subcommittee also voted unanimously to drop the district's standalone conflict-of-interest policy, which Novak said may not fully cover Massachusetts General Law Chapter 268A and belongs in district-wide rather than committee-specific policy. A discussion on adopting gender-neutral pronouns throughout the manual was deferred to the full School Committee. The subcommittee's next meeting is set for May 13, 2026, at 6 p.m.