HUNTSVILLE — Huntsville Independent School District trustees OK’d a new student code of conduct for the 2010-11 school year in their regular meeting Tuesday, also hearing from concerned citizens about that issue and others during the meeting’s public forum.

Three community members addressed the board about various concerns they had in the district related to the treatment of African-American students and parents as well as the lack of African-American leadership in the district.

“A survey of HISD’s African-American parents was done in January,” Beverly Echolls said. “Some of the comments on those surveys cited things like nervousness when visiting their child’s campus, parents being talked down to by office personnel and some being questioned about why they volunteer so much at the campus.

“While parents are encouraged by the district to participate in their child’s education, they seem to be discouraged by personnel at the front office,” she said. “Are these personnel being properly trained as to the treatment of visitors to their school and in ways to be sensitive to minorities, or anyone who comes in?”

While trustees were not legally obligated to verbally respond to those concerns, some of their issues  — including student discipline — were addressed during the meeting.

The new code of conduct, rewritten by a law firm specializing in public school discipline, was presented to trustees by HISD Assistant Superintendent of General Operations John DeBrock.

“After (the firm) did a training with us on discipline issues, they rewrote one more user friendly,” DeBrock said. “It is something that we hope students and parents will understand more and that administrators will find easier to follow.”

The new code includes changes to the types of prohibited conduct as well as a new procedure for sending a student to in-school suspension, AEP or outside suspension.

“Students will be given the opportunity to respond before the administrator’s decision is finalized,” DeBrock said. “And the former rule allowing the administrator the choice to move a student up a level (to a stricter form of discipline) has been removed.”

All administrators — principals and assistant principals — will be trained in the new code, DeBrock said, with the importance of consistency being emphasized.

“Consistency is a concern that everyone has in the area of discipline,” DeBrock said. “But we hope this new system, and the fact that it will be closely monitored, will improve things.”

HISD Superintendent Dr. Richard Montgomery was prompted by trustees to give some background on what has taken place in the area of student discipline so far in 2010.

“We are being monitored by the Texas Education Agency in terms of discipline referrals to our alternate education program (AEP),” Montgomery said. “It was found to be a statewide problem — too many students were being placed in AEP when they might not need to be.

“So TEA has taken the initiative to monitor discipline issues across the state and chose us as one of the districts to look at.”

According to Montgomery, on the team’s first visit, they reviewed a specific number of disciplinary files and discovered that 72 percent of those reports contained errors.

“There were two main issues,” he said. “One, there was no clear, written documentation of due process; and two, when looking at the chain of events involved, there was no intervention indicated.”

In response to the TEA’s findings, the district retained the firm of Walsh Anderson, Attorneys at Law, to aid the district in aligning their code of conduct and improving those discrepancies in discipline.

“One of the things the firm did was come up with new discipline referral forms that directly question the teacher/adminstrator about interventions,” Montgomery said. “That includes those things done by the teacher in the classroom to prevent a situation from escalating.”

DeBrock will serve as an internal auditor for the new code and will review referral reports weekly. He was also charged with presenting regular reports to the school board.

“If there is something that doesn’t look right, or is inconsistent, I can follow up on it promptly,” DeBrock said. “We are emphasizing full and complete investigations of incidents, and want every student’s side to be heard before final actions are taken.”

After hearing from residents on the issue in past meetings, some trustees voiced concerns about the school resource officer’s role in issuing disciplinary citations.

“The school resource officer’s role is to support the administration and not take the place of it,” DeBrock said. “If what the student does violates the law, the student must still be disciplined by the school before the SRO is contacted.

“Citations are serious once they are written,” DeBrock said. “That is why we are emphasizing more thorough investigations by administrators.”

The 2010-11 Code of Conduct was approved by trustees with a 6-1 vote, with trustee Larry Thornton casting the lone opposing vote.

“I have very real reservations about not having consistency,” Thornton said. “I am concerned that we don’t know who the SROs are going to be and the amount of training they receive on the new code.”

In other business, the board:

• Approved the consent agenda, which includes minutes, monthly financial statements, budget amendment No. 10, bid acceptances, the tax sale of trust properties and personnel-related items discussed in closed session.

• Heard an update on the sale of the Hopewell School site.

According to Montgomery, the group interested in obtaining the site is currently seeking their non-profit status, and once they do, the district is legally able to donate the land to the group, upon TEA approval.

• Approved adoption of the School Health Index (SHI) to assess district health problems.

• Elected trustees Larry Thornton and Patrick Antwi to serve as the respective delegate and alternate delegate at the Texas Association of School Boards Convention.

• Heard a report on a transportation grant and a 2010-2011 budget update (second draft including compensation plan).

• Discussed the hiring process for principals and head coaches.