HOLLANDALE — Both to ensure compliance with regulations and to add clarity, Albert Lea Area Schools updated several policies as well as school-level handbooks, which was discussed at Monday’s school board meeting.

The activities handbook had no direct policy change, Activities Director Paul Durbahn said. Anything added to the handbook was to provide information and clarity.

One change — how much school an athlete must attend before becoming eligible to participate in practice or games that same day — is a more procedural change. While the handbook stated students would need to be at school the full day, in implementation, students who were in school by the end of their second-hour class could participate.

“Moving forward, we’re going to apply the procedure as the policy states,” Durbahn said after the meeting.

He said he does not know how far back the alternate implementation went, but does not anticipate enforcing the policy as written to be an issue.

Additionally, the handbook now includes further demarcation of activities types. According to Durbahn, different activities — category I or category II — are defined by the Minnesota State High School League and determine how chemical and harassment penalties are applied. Now, parents will know what separates the activities by looking in the handbook.

Category I activities are defined as “league-sponsored activities in which a member school has a schedule of interscholastic contests, exclusive of league-sponsored tournaments.”

Category II activities are those that do not have a schedule of interscholastic contests exclusive of league-sponsored events.

The elementary school handbook:

• Now has Spanish copies available on request.

• Includes a section on tardies. Lakeview Elementary School Principal Nick Sofio said he stills see families coming in late relatively regularly.

• Added a portion about student testing. The paragraph tells parents why their children are being tested and how to contact the school regarding statewide testing should the parent not wish for their child to participate.

The secondary school handbooks:

• Made changes to the middle school and high school handbooks to align them with each other. Both Southwest Middle School and Albert Lea High School students will have five days rather than 10 to complete eLearning assignments.

• Include, in the high school handbook, information about the e-hall pass students use via their Chromebooks, rather than paper passes, to sign in and out of classrooms. Albert Lea High School Principal Mark Grossklaus said this allows him to see where every student in the building should be.

The policy updates were all passed and included:

• Policy 419: Tobacco-Free Environment; Possession and Use of Tobacco, Tobacco-Related Devices, and Electronic Delivery Devices. The state changed the name of the policy, said Executive Director of Administrative Services Kathy Niebuhr, and also changed the term “e-cigarette” to “electronic delivery devices.”

• Policy 506: Student Discipline. This policy referenced the tobacco policy, so the student discipline policy was changed to reflect the name change of policy 419.

• Policy 516: School District Accountability. The federal government reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Act, and that statute says states that receive federal funding need to provide school accountability reporting. The district does this already, Niebuhr said.

“It really is just adding language, because we already do a school performance … report by site and district,” Niebuhr said after the meeting.