Nonini pushes parental permission policy

Rep. Bob Nonini visited the Coeur d’Alene school board meeting Monday and asked trustees to pass a policy that would require students to get parental permission before joining clubs at school.

Nonini sponsored a bill to that effect in the Idaho Legislature this session. It passed in the House but stalled in the Senate Education Committee.

Nonini said at the meeting he did not sponsor the bill in response to the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance student club at Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene last fall. Any policy should apply to all student groups, he said.

However, during a closing debate in the Legislature this month, Nonini said parents should be aware that the student group states as a goal the development of a relationship with its counterpart at North Idaho College.

“You are now bringing adult people who support a certain lifestyle … into a high school setting where you have 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids, and I have an issue with that. I think parents should be aware,” Nonini said at the time.

An adviser to the alliance has said that the group has no ties to the college club but used the club as a model.

Now that the session is over, Nonini said he plans to work with the Idaho School Board Association in the summer to pass a parental consent policy. The association is an advisory group that does not have authority over local school boards, said Keely Emerine Mix, an executive board member of the association.

The Coeur d’Alene School District is considering a policy that would require parental permission after members of the Mica Flats Grange, a fraternal agricultural organization, presented it in February with a resolution that spelled out what a policy should say.

The policy adoption process is lengthy. The district is seeking advice from its attorney in Boise on the language, said Judy Drake, the district’s director of staff relations and community resources. The policy will then go to a policy development committee, then to the school board for a first reading, then to schools for review and comment, then to a policy advisory committee, then to the school board for a vote.

In other business, the board approved two hires to replace Drake, who is retiring after 32 years in the district.

Pamela Pratt, the principal at Skyway Elementary, will direct elementary education starting in July and Rosie Astorquia, the district’s curriculum coordinator, will direct secondary education.

The district is rearranging the duties of its central office so the number of employees will remain the same even though two people are replacing Drake, Assistant Superintendent Hazel Bauman said.