School board policies that you might have missed. Why would you even look at them in the first place?
Staff Writer
School has a lot of rules. There’s at least, like, five of them. Surprisingly, these rules don’t appear out of nowhere. The FUSD Board creates policies that AHS has to adhere to when setting guidelines. The school didn’t just randomly say “we hate hats” and decide to ban them; district policy set the standard that “Sunglasses, hats, caps, hoods and other non-religious/cultural head coverings shall not be worn indoors.”
Likewise, the school also has policies to follow when setting class sizes. The reason that you didn’t get Culinary Arts as a class isn’t because your friend paid off the school to never let you cook again. You didn’t get the class you wanted because according to Board Policy 6151 A.R., high schools shouldn’t exceed class sizes of 33 students for non-PE and non-music classes. While it’s frustrating when your preferred elective runs out of space faster than concert tickets, it is nice not to have to learn calculus in a room packed tighter than a clown car.
School board policies aren’t meant to exclusively cause student suffering, though. According to Board Policy 6514 A.R.-Homework, “Individual or group long-term projects shall not be exclusively assigned over breaks or due the week immediately following a break.” This policy should ensure that break is a time for talking about how much work that will get done over the week, not actually doing it. In theory, this means that breaks can be spent binge-watching shows and pretending to be productive while scrolling reels, or sleeping until noon without the guilt of a looming project deadline. However, the policy doesn’t specify what a project exactly is, meaning that a five-paragraph essay that is due at the end of break could be a “small homework assignment.”
Speaking of homework assignments that feel like projects, don’t forget the joy that is group work. Group projects are a unique type of academic agony—the workload is uneven, the group chats are ninety percent memes and ten percent planning, and trying to subtly nudge a teammate into doing work could be classified as a psychological mind game. If you don’t mind selling out a teammate for an assignment that was going to earn a seven out of ten anyways, school board policies got your back. According to 6514 AR-Homework, “Students should not be penalized for group members not completing assigned tasks. One hundred percent of the student’s grade should not be dependent on the group grade.” Unfortunately, there hasn’t yet been a policy put in place that can prevent assigned partners from mysteriously disappearing the moment there’s actual work to be done.
These board policies aren’t just some type of terms of service you should blindly scroll through. Will all of these guidelines be followed? Absolutely not. Will there be times where knowing and speaking out about rule violations benefit you? Yes. These guidelines exist for a reason—even if we don’t agree or understand them at times. So the next time you’re miffed about your schedule or your partner that pulled a Houdini, just know there’s a policy that’s trying to make the situation less painful. Sort of.
The only feeling worse than returning to school after break is returning to school after break AND turning in an assignment that you forgot about (Art Credit: Kingston Lo (12)).
Eagle Era 
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