PEEKSKILL, N.Y. By a 3-2 vote, the Peekskill City School District Board of Education has approved a measure that will allow juniors and seniors to leave the high school on their lunch break, at least until the end of the school year.
Students in those grades who are in good standing and get a signed waiver from a parent or guardian will be allowed to leave campus within a few weeks. Freshman and sophomores will still be barred from leaving campus.
Trustees Mike Simpkins, Tuesday McDonald and Fran Feuerman voted in favor of the new policy as a compromise resolution until the end of the school year when a new policy will be drafted.
Feuerman said she wasn't sure that keeping students on campus would necessarily keep them out of trouble. "As many incidents as we hear about when students go off campus, we're hearing about the same number of incidents within the school," Feuerman said.
School board president Joe Urbanowicz and trustee Marcela Bobe voted against the measure, citing student safety and liability concerns for the district. Bobe said that although she voted against the open campus she wanted the parental waivers notarized. "The waiver policy has to be bulletproof," she said.
Trustees Doug Glickert and Lisbeth Bock was unable to make the meeting but Glickert told trustees in a letter, read aloud for the record, he was against a closed campus policy.
The move comes almost two months after new Superintendent James Willis began enforcing an old school policy, which prevented students from leaving the school grounds while classes were in session, citing student safety concerns.
Many students and some parents had voiced their displeasure with Willis' proposal arguing that students should be allowed to come and go as they please on their lunch hour.
Among over a dozen students who were at the meeting was sophomore class treasurer Joshua Gaillard, who said the policy change was a step in the right direction.
"We wanted at least 10th through 12th (grades) but we got 11th and 12th so we're happy about that," Gaillard said.
The owner of a deli located adjacent to the high school campus also complained the policy enforcement would hurt his business.
The new policy will expire at the end of the school year, when trustees said they would explore more options and possibly stricter rules for the 2012-13 school year.
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