Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • May 23, 2012 FLOW Area Policies on facility names, recognition introduced by Frank J. McMahon The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education has introduced two new policies that pertain to the naming of school facilities and the recognition of a retiring employee. The first policy was prompted by the recent decision by the school board to remove the name of a former superintendent from the district’s administration building at Indian Hills High School in Oakland. That name was removed based on the current board’s determination that a previous board named the building without a policy or uniform criteria in effect at the time to guide that board in its consideration and selection of candidates after whom the building would be named. The current board reconsidered that earlier action and concluded it would be in the best interest of the district and the community to ensure that the naming of district-owned buildings be effectuated, if at all, only after careful consideration guided by appropriate selection criteria and procedures. The new policy for naming school facilities calls for buildings, rooms, and structures, both on school grounds and within school facilities, to be named only by formal action of the board of education. When naming facilities, the board would be asked honor the highest ideals and integrity of the district and the community and name a facility after an individual only when such individual has been determined to characterize sustained and exemplary service to others. The policy would restricts a school facility from being memorialized by being named after an employee or officer of the board of education; student; community member; or local, state, national, or international public figure or other person during his/her lifetime. An honoree would have to be deceased for at least three years prior to being considered for memorialization. In addition, the policy would require that any individual recommended for memorialization be identified for such to the board by a committee comprised of board members, district employees, students, and community members. The committee’s recommendation would have to be accompanied by a written rationale that includes, but is not limited to, the individual’s length of service to others, instances of his or her exemplary service, the individual’s impact on the district and community, and the ideals and integrity that were consistently demonstrated by the individual. According to the policy, the board would have the sole discretion to determine whether the individual identified by the committee would be memorialized. In addition, the policy would not obligate the board to maintain the individual’s memorialization for any specified period of time, and the memoralization could be withdrawn at any time. The second policy pertains to the acknowledgement of a retiring employee’s service. That policy would provide that any employee who has completed 10 years or more of full time service in the district would be eligible for recognition, which would be given after the employee formally announces his or her intention to retire and the retirement is accepted by the board of education. According to the policy, recognition would include a resolution prepared by the superintendent and formally approved at a regular meeting of the board. The retiring employee would have his or her name and date of retirement placed upon a memorial plaque that would be located in the school where the employee served. A district-level employee would have his or her name and date of retirement placed on plaques in both of the district’s schools or, as appropriate, in the district office. The policy provides that extraordinary recognition could be considered for an employee whose career contributions continue to have a positive impact on the district’s students after his or her retirement, but a period of at least 24 months must pass from the date of retirement before extraordinary recognition could be considered. At that time, a resolution for extraordinary recognition would be prepared by the superintendent and would be formally approved at a regular meeting of the board. The policy also calls for a “Wall of Fame” to be maintained in each school building and in the district office to acknowledge in the appropriate location those employees granted extraordinary recognition. Such recognition, however, could not exceed 12 inches by 16 inches. Recognition plaques or lettering in place prior to the adoption of this policy that exceed the maximum permissible dimensions, however, would be permitted to remain in their current location until removed in the course of work on the facility. Plaques removed in the course of facilities work would be relocated to the appropriate Wall of Fame and lettering removed in the course of facilities work would be replaced with a plaque on the appropriate wall. If the board adopts this policy, recognition plaques or lettering that are now in place that exceed 16 inches by 24 inches would be removed and replaced with an acceptable size plaque on the appropriate Wall of Fame. The exemption to this policy would be signs associated with functional structures. Plaques designed to acknowledge similar accomplishments of multiple district employees on one plaque would be encouraged and would be subject to the discretion of the board of education.