What makes a Parker student? 

This question was the first of many administrators and other community members asked as they rewrote Parker’s handbook for the 2019-2020 school year. Along with changes that deal with attendance, college counseling, the registrar’s office, student/teacher communication and the discipline policy, the new handbook provides a set of guidelines that define a Parker student in the Code of Conduct.

“We saw this as an opportunity to re-design the handbook and Code of Conduct,” Head of Upper School Justin Brandon said. “We wanted to make it more modern, and meet the needs of everyone. We wanted to align the entire JK-12 school to where it should be while looking at the state of the world today, making clear communication paths and expectations for everyone in a world that seems to be very unpredictable.” 

Division heads and other administrators divided up different sections of the handbook to look at individually and then met several times throughout the summer to make big changes and input edits. Other figures across the community looked over different sections that pertained to their area of expertise, and gradeheads left questions and comments on drafts. 

There was a large emphasis on “building this book in an all-school kind of way,” Brandon said. The mission and guidelines included in the Code of Conduct spell out expectations for every single Parker community member: parents, faculty, staff, and students ages four to 18. Nothing varies by division. 

“We wanted to create norms and boundaries for the community as a whole,” Brandon said. “There was a huge global conversation to make sure the book will read as much all-school as possible, and a lot more than it did in the past.” 

Brandon said as he looked at the old Code of Conduct it became more and more clear that a lot of what was defined differently by division did not need to be. “All divisions can say ‘No that is not okay,’ or ‘Yes that is encouraged,’ or even ‘This is the attendance policy for the whole school.’” 

The revisions to the Code of Conduct contains specific language that defines and condemns different behaviors including sexual harassment, bullying, hate speech, and retailation.

In addition, the discipline policy is now standardized. “When we sat down and discussed the discipline policy, there were things that we learned, for example, Mr. Novick was doing in the Middle School that could work in the Upper School,” Brandon said. 

One of these pieces is In-School Reflection, a practice used by Head of Middle and Intermediate School John Novick. After a student commits an infraction, they spend a lunch period in Novick’s room to discuss it. 

The Middle and Intermediate School has been using In-School Reflection for the past three years, according to Brandon, and students in the Upper School will now spend lunch with Dean of Student Life Joe Bruno after committing an infraction at the lowest level. 

According to Brandon, the discipline policy is now divided into three levels. The first will entail an In-School Reflection, and includes offenses such as cutting class and disrespecting a teacher. 

The second level is reached when one of the aforementioned actions is repeated. Other transgressions that would result in a second level offense include disregard for school property, misconduct on a school trip, or putting students or a student at a safety risk. The consequences for a second level offense could be a Day of Reflection, counseling, or suspension.

The third level of infraction would require the school to consider your place within the building. The compounding of blatant disrespect for school values or illegal behavior is what would lead to a level three classification, Brandon said. 

Although Brandon wishes there could have been more student involvement in rewriting the discipline policy, time constraints eliminated this possibility. “I took all of the notes I had from the work we did in the Discipline Committee and made changes based off those,” he said. “I also inputted many of the edits and suggestions made by members of Student Government into the Code of Conduct.”  

Member of the Discipline Committee, former Senate Head, and current Executive Advisor Lindsay Carlin helped to make these changes. “Ultimately I think Student Government could not substantially change the Code of Conduct given the time frame and the handbook content we were presented, but I’m glad the leadership of the school took it upon themselves to rewrite the sections of the handbook that caused problems last year.”
“The true test of effectiveness will be when those sections are put to use,” Carlin added.

Brandon noted that although the Discipline Committee was not able to make changes to the extent he desired, they will meet again in October and beyond to discuss the changes and work on any for the 2020-2021 school year.

“Our biggest goal in the revisions was to increase consistency and transparency and make sure the handbook reflects our values,” Brandon said. “We wanted one all-school document that shows and enforces what we stand for as an institution.”