FLOYD COUNTY — One school board policy for New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. says staff members can campaign on school grounds as long as they are not on the clock.

Another school board policy says literature handed out must be reviewed and pre-approved by the superintendent.

Administrative guidelines say political literature or posters can’t be displayed on school owned property, unless it’s part of a teacher’s lesson in the classroom. In that same list of guidelines, it says political literature can be distributed outside of school hours.

Bill Briscoe, assistant to the superintendent for administration and operations, said one thing is clear.

“The administrative guidelines is in theory supposed to help the administration to help explain the policy. Obviously, we’re going to work to help clarify the guidelines,” Briscoe said. “Our policies and guidelines are not clear right now.”

“Obviously the school board needs to redo our policy. We need to correct the policy and make it consistent and hold people accountable in the future for when it’s violated,” said board member Rebecca Gardenour, who is up for re-election in two years.

A story in Wednesday’s Tribune pointed out issues where some allege various people handed out campaign literature inside school buildings. Cars were also seen on a school parking lot with obvious signs supporting certain candidates for school board.

Views of those involved were mixed on if it was allowable or not.

Briscoe said that though none of the policies are clear, Superintendent Bruce Hibbard read them all and came up with an interpretation that will work until one universal policy is created by the school board. Briscoe said that means people will be able to campaign on school grounds, outside of the building, not during school hours as long as it isn’t disruptive or blocking entrances/exits.

Briscoe said he hasn’t had to deal with the clarification issue among the different policies before.

“Elections are something we don’t deal with on a daily basis and it’s not a major focus, but it’s something we need to clarify and make right before the next election,” he said.

Briscoe said campaign literature should not be distributed in the schools. One person talked to The Tribune previously about a campaign brochure appearing on a teacher’s desk at the adult learning center. Another said she was handed a campaign brochure inside of Scribner Middle School’s lobby, prior to a school board meeting.

Carol Mooney, UniServ Director for the Indiana State Teachers Association, said there’s no telling who handed that person the flyer in the school or who put it on the desk. Both those flyers were ones paid for by the ISTA, National Education Association and South Central Political Action Committee, according to the back of the brochure.

“The rule of thumb is do not in any way disrupt a child’s education in any way,” Mooney said, referring to what teachers are told by the ISTA.

She said it could have been a parent handing out the brochures at Scribner, who didn’t know the rules. As for the adult learning center, she said it could have been requested or put there by a friend, who thought that person would appreciate it.

Mooney said people are free to reject the campaign material when it is offered to them.

Mark Kessans, president of NAFC’s teachers’ association, said no one has been able to name any teacher handing out campaign materials in a building. He said that some may be making that up or the incident could have been staged.

“I think our efforts are being noted. Otherwise, people wouldn’t be concerned what was going on,” Kessans said, adding that he did ask the superintendent for permission to have someone hand out the campaign material outside of the school.

Kessans said people from the association weren’t the only ones handing out campaign material. He said previously that he was handed campaign material from Tonye Rutherford, a candidate for school board, inside of Scribner. Rutherford responded via e-mail that he didn’t know that wasn’t allowed.

Briscoe said he doesn’t feel that any one has violated one or more policies intentionally.

“I’m guess that in all these situations, I don’t think there was any malice or intent to violate anything,” Briscoe said. “I think the main thing is for us in the future to have policy and guidelines that are clear and everyone can understand so that no one violates anything unintentionally.”

Gardenour said she plans on bringing up this issue at the next school board meeting, which is set for May 3 — the day before the school board elections. More than just setting one universal policy, she said ramifications also need to be put into place in case people don’t follow it.

“We need to fix this so it doesn’t happen in the future,” she said. “Every time there’s a school board election, this has happened. We need to stop that.”

Gardenour said she will talk to the board about setting a goal next year to go through all of its policies and make sure each is correct and appropriate.