Policy 8-501

WAIVER FOR SITE INITIATIVES

The Newtown Board of Education encourages its schools to develop plans that will improve student learning and/or help the schools to operate more effectively.   Sometimes these plans may require Board of Education approval.

The Newtown Board of Education will measure school proposals against objective criteria and adopt all those that meet the criteria. The criteria are as follows:

• All building teams must include the principal and teachers and parents who have been fairly selected.
• All decisions must be reached through consensus.
• Proposed programs must maintain consistency with the district mission, model, and core beliefs.
• Proposed programs must be capable of orderly and efficient integration into the system with articulation among the elementary, middle, and high schools.
• School plans and programs must be in alignment with federal, state, and local regulations; any necessary waiver must have been obtained.
• Proposed programs must be fiscally sound.
• Proposed programs must have specific goals and objectives that can be
• effectively, objectively evaluated on a predetermined date.
• After a defined trial period, the program must be able to be institutionalized by an affirmative vote of three-quarters of the school's entire staff.
• Notification must be given to all schools prior to implementation of significantchange so that each school has ample time to consider the implications for its
• school.

Adopted 8/24/93
Modified 10/10/95