Policies are principles adopted by the school board to chart a course of action. They tell WHAT is wanted and may include also WHY and HOW MUCH. They should be broad enough to provide the administrators with guidance in handling the day-to-day issues, which arise; they should be narrow enough to give the administration clear guidance. This philosophy was incorporated into thinking that produced the model and guided the board and the district's staff in developing the final, adopted policies.

The system's ultimate success depends on using these policies daily to guide the administrators and as a management tool to facilitate school board operations and actions. The coding or "tracking" of terms is by letter rather than by number. Letter (alpha) encoding offers two major advantages over number coding. A letter system offers more flexibility. The code has available 26 separate letters to use compared to only ten digits. A letter system requires no decimal points. This tends to reduce the likelihood of errors in reproduction and filing.    

The Index

The index is designed to help the user find the subject described in the appropriate policy. Major descriptors appear in several places in the index. This is to facilitate the user's search for correct term placement in the system.    

When Using This Manual    

To use this manual properly, the reader should look up the subject matter in the index and turn to the policy section first. The reader should check the table of contents found in the front of each policy section to determine whether the desired subject is cross-referenced to any other policy and to determine if "Also" or "See" are present. The reader should turn to the alpha code in the appropriate section and read the policy. After the reader has done this, he should read all cross-references and other similar referrals.    

State Law and Negotiated Contracts    

These policies do not contain any statutory language except where necessary or negotiated contract language. They exist in other, separate documents, which should be consulted if needed. If the reader is in doubt about the subject being pursued, he should ask the superintendent or some other administrative staff member for guidance.    

Definitions 
1. When the masculine pronoun is used throughout these policies, it is intended to refer to both feminine and masculine antecedents. 
2. Wherever the word "superintendent" or "principal" occurs, the words "or designated representative" are assumed to be included.