The Clearfield Area School Board held a routine meeting Monday night approving a series of items for
the beginning of the school year and hearing reports from staff on the first week of school.
The staff reported that the first week was a success and they have been ironing out some wrinkles
regarding schedules, new policies and so on.
Superintendent Terry Struble reported that the district has over 2,100 students enrolled with 171 in
Kindergarten, and this is the first year in several years for the district to have so many students while other
districts are seeing a decrease, especially with Kindergarten.
The student board representative reported that some students are having trouble with the new bathroom
policy, which was further explained to the board later.
The teachers were noticing that students would go to the bathroom and spend a lot of time there
socializing or watching videos on their phones.
The new policy has teachers sitting outside of restrooms and making sure students don’t spend too much
time in the restroom, and checking on them to ensure there isn’t an emergency.
Students sign out one at a time utilizing electronic sign out, allowing the teachers to keep track of who is
out at any given time.
The policy is being rolled out slowly, beginning with grades 7-8 this year, and expanding to grade 9 next
year, and the other grades in following years.
Under new business, the board was to approve the second reading of several policies, but board member
Gail Ralston asked that they separate out two of the policies regarding cocurricular activities and courses
and also the Career and Technical Education program for home education students.
Ralston was concerned that the amount of time the students would have or the amount of credits received
would not fall under state guidelines.
The board voted to table the two policies until they can be reviewed by the solicitor.