Students returning to Haines schools next week will see new teachers, new rules on student behavior and a bit longer school day.

Classes resume at Haines School and Mosquito Lake Tuesday. School starts in Klukwan at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday.

For students at Haines School, school will start at 8:25 a.m. and end at 3:15 p.m. this year. The addition of 10 minutes to the school day will create time for additional, individual instruction for students in the high school and middle school.

The district recently updated its student handbook, principal Cheryl Stickler told the school board Tuesday, including addressing public displays of affection. “There are basically no PDAs in the middle school,” she said.

Changes also address student dress code, which now prohibits exposure of underwear. “If you say skirts have to be a certain length, you have to get your ruler out. Our policy is that underwear is not outerwear. We don’t want to see straps or anything like that.”

The school also has eliminated a previous distinction between late and tardy, and eliminated time-based definitions of those terms. Office staff will determine absences, she said.

“I’m hesitant to set a minute limit,” Stickler said. “We want to make it attractive, not punitive, for students to get to class.”

New teachers in the school this year include Akela Silkman, first grade; Christopher Haxton, third grade; Lexie DeWitt, fourth grade; Nevada Benton, high school special education; and Kristina Mulready, music for students grades five through 12.

Special education aides hired by the district in August include Julie Jensen, Maurecio Cadeno, Sarah DeVore and Carla Earnest.

Superintendent Michael Byer said at Monday’s school board meeting that projected district enrollment is 297.25, including 165.5 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, 106 in the high school, 18 at Mosquito Lake and 7.25 enrolled in the district’s home-school program.

The district had 304 students after the first day of classes last year. “We’re maintaining. I always like to see it go up, but we’ll take it,” Byer told the school board. “We never know until the first day of school who will show up.”

The district has changed an earlier plan to add a half-time position in the school office. The school board approved the position at its June meeting, saying it was needed to cover paperwork burdens, particularly for special education.

Stickler said on reconsideration, staff decided the office manpower needs fluctuated too widely to justify such a hire. “It’s an ebb and flow position. Do we really want to fund a permanent position for those times?”

In June the school board approved a spending plan for approximately $240,000 in federal stimulus funds.

It included $119,000 to increase staff, training and additional equipment for “enrichment and intervention,” primarily involving the computer-based reading program “Fast ForWord”; $47,000 to improve math curriculum and instruction; $13,000 for equipment for a high school engineering course developed around an alternative energy demonstration system; $15,000 for new musical instruments; $21,000 for laptops and other computers, and $13,000 for curriculum mapping software and training.

Author