PANAMA CITY — Bay District Schools named a new director of transportation and discussed upcoming changes to the district’s student discipline policy in a meeting on Tuesday.
The board accepted the transportation committee’s recommendation to hire Anthony Conte Jr. to be Bay District Schools’ new director of transportation. He replaces former director Bob Downin, who resigned.
Conte is the former safety and training specialist over student transportation services in Flagler County. The transportation committee interviewed six candidates, including Stephen Anderson, who is currently heading the department until Conte starts.
The committee said Anderson has done a “wonderful job” in Downin’s absence, but selected Conte based on his experience in Flagler County overseeing the transportation of 9,000 students. Bay district transports 13,000 students.
The committee was impressed with Conte’s integration of the Versatrans system, a school bus routing and planning software to improve efficiency and save money in transportation costs.
Discipline changes
Another item that received heavy discussion is the prospect of removing corporal punishment as an option for student discipline.
“I think there’s a place for corporal punishment, but our administrators are afraid,” said chairman Jerry Register. “We’ve gotten to the point in the operation of the school system where it is rarely done.”
Under the current policy, the district can use corporal punishment with the parent’s consent. The district considered revision to remove corporal punishment altogether after a deeper look at, not only the ethical implications, but ultimately whether it’s an effective form of punishment.
Physical punishment had led to legal troubles for some districts, leaving some to abandon the practice.
“It’s not worth it to expose the school board to the liability issues around corporal punishment,” Register said. “It’s just too bad that our people have to worry about being taken to court.”
The board also moved to change language in the discipline policy to prevent students from being expelled for possessing certain items the zero tolerance policy broadly defines as weapons. For instance, the new policy would exclude pellet guns and paintball guns from being considered firearms, and a common pocket knife with a blade not exceeding four inches would not be considered a weapon.
The district will also implement a more defined hazing policy, separate from the bullying and harassment category, now that statutes require districts to have a formal hazing policy.
“Typically, when you hear about this, it’s at the collegiate level,” said Lee Stafford, director of student services. “We don’t have a lot of it at the secondary level.”
Changes to the discipline policy aim to layer in more options for intervention, such as out-of-school suspension or placement in alternative school, over expulsion. As of Tuesday’s meeting, the new policy is available for public review for 30 days until it becomes finalized at the next board meeting.
Staffordsaid the majority of expulsions in the district happen at the high school level for actions named in the state’s zero tolerance discipline policy. The district hopes policy changes will provide better avenues for discipline issues.
“The changes are more specific to the student and the action taken,” Stafford said. “The new policy gives students the opportunity to correct behaviors before it comes to the need to consider expulsion.”