The Carroll ISD board of trustees approved various district policies updates at its Aug. 5 meeting. These changes will be reflected in the 2019-20 school year.

One notable change is CISD’s policy for unassigned epinephrine auto-injectors.

The district ensures that each campus will have at least one personnel trained to administer epinephrine during all hours the campus is open, according to meeting documents.

But previously, that referred to the instructional day. Now it also includes school-sponsored activities as recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards.

“This means that only those staff who are trained to administer the epinephrine pens will be allowed to serve as administrators on duty for the purpose of after school or evening school-sponsored activities at campuses outside the typical instructional day,” meeting documents states. “The training is provided to staff by our CISD nurses.”

This does not include events that take place as rented by non-CISD groups, said Julie Thannum, the assistant superintendent for board and community relations.

Other updates included clarifying and additional clauses to the Student Handbook and Code of Conduct, which deals with disciplinary policies, prohibited items, student expectations and more.

The Student Services Department and the superintendent’s office worked with the District Diversity Council, staff and administrators to review the handbook.

The biggest changes reflect added language to comply with new laws from the legislative sessions; outline extracurricular activity policies for students facing disciplinary action; and strengthen CISD's stance against discrimination based on a person’s race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or age.

Families will be notified of the updated Student Handbook and Code of Conduct and will be required to submit an online verification form to signify they have read it before the school year begins Aug. 19. It will be available Aug. 7-18.

Trustees Bradley Taylor, Todd Carlton and Dave Almand were absent from the meeting.