Jefferson County Public Schools officials showed the school board their latest draft of the student code of conduct Tuesday, with Superintendent Donna Hargens saying that JCPS plans to continue revising the code every year "until we're at nirvana, until we have it perfect."

Among the changes in this latest draft, which is expected to go up for board approval next month: removing the "deliberate disruption" category and instead replacing it with nine more specific categories, such as horseplay, excessive noise and spitting.

Katy Zeitz, the district's incoming assistant superintendent over alternative schools, said that, in the past, the deliberate disruption category had been a "bucket" into which a lot of different types of student misbehavior was put.

She said that the current code of conduct allows for suspensions for deliberate disruption, which means in practice that students could be suspended for a host of different behaviors. She said the proposed changes will help cut down on subjectivity.

Under the proposed changes, students who engage in horseplay, leave the classroom without permission or make excessive noise - things that now fall under "deliberate disruption" - could be punished with, at the most, an in-school suspension.

Yet things like spitting and failure to respond to questions or requests could still be suspendable offenses, according to the proposed revision.

The latest draft was hammered together by a group of district staff members followingmultiple public meetings by a code of conduct committee and two "superintendent's summits" to discuss student behavior.

The draft provides some differentiation in consequences between elementary and secondary school students and also breaks out certain categories into sub-categories.

For instance, students who commit theft could get different consequences depending on their grade and the amount stolen, according to the draft code of conduct. And students who curse at teachers could potentially get a suspension, whereas students who just use profanity in general would at most get in-school suspensions.

In a few instances, JCPS officials upped the level of discipline possible for some infractions; for instance, inappropriate sexual behavior - which does not include sexual abuse or assault - could be an offense that warrants a long-term suspension and placement in an alternative school facility.

Zeitz stressed that the discipline options laid out in the code of conduct are meant to be used after classroom intervention strategies, if possible, but also noted that school safety is paramount.

"As we move forward, we look to provide additional clarity and equity in the way we address behavior supports and responses," Zeitz said later.

Hargens said that JCPS plans to closely monitor its discipline data and said schools will be expected to add more detail to their referrals so district officials can have a clearer view of trends or any possible disparities in how schools dole out discipline for particular infractions.

Hargens said one of the better things about having more specific categories is that "we're going to have such clean data." But she said that, while the focus of the work session centered mostly on changes to the discipline matrix, the district's "energy is going to be about what we're going to do to help our students be successful."

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She pointed to work to focus on trauma-informed care and on deeper learning.

"An engaged learner is not going to misbehave," she said.

Board members did not get long to ask questions during the more than hour-long work session. Board vice-chairwoman Diane Porter said she wanted to make sure she clearly understood what was being changed and said she planned to have some follow-up questions later.

But she added that the work to revamp the code of conduct was important, adding that rethinking the use of suspensions for certain offenses was good.

"What we’re doing is hard. But it must change if we are looking at what we’re currently doing," Porter said. "We cannot teach students who are on the street."

Porter added, " I must vote for change. We cannot continue to have disproportionate amounts of things happen to people based on subjection."

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