1001 General Policy Statement

The organization, management, and control of this Educational Service Unit ("ESU") is vested in its board ("board"). To guide the board and educational service unit operations, and to assist it and its designees in carrying out the duties, the board will establish, maintain, and amend a set of policies.
Written board policies serve the following purposes by:

Formally articulating the board's goals and long-term objectives.
Providing ESU administrators and staff with guidance in making decisions that affect students, employees, and patrons of the ESU.
Informing the public of the manner that the board and ESU will conduct its business and its relationships with staff, pupils, parents, and patrons.

To avoid unnecessary rigidity, these policies are stated in general terms. With the exception of the statutory requirements or instances when the specific application of a policy is essential to the long-term welfare of the ESU, these policies are intended to provide administrators with the flexibility to apply them to a wide range of situations.
The policies are not only the guidelines for the ESU operations. Specific regulations, procedures, and practices also help guide and govern actions and decisions. They must be consistent with policies, but serve a different purpose.

The board cannot foresee every situation that may arise, and circumstances will occur when these policies provide inadequate guidance. In such circumstances, the administrator should use his or her best judgement, and communicate with the board about the situation as soon as is convenient.

Each policy and its provision should be interpreted so that it is valid under applicable law. If a court determines that a provision of the policy is invalid, such invalidity shall not affect the remaining provisions of that policy.

Adopted on: January 14, 2008
Revised on: Nov. 13, 2017
Reviewed on: April 11, 2011
Reviewed on: January 11, 2021

1001: General Policy Statement