Central Bucks School Board Gets Down To Business With Policy Review

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Four policies suspended by the newly-seated Central Bucks School Board in early December are back before the board’s policy development committee for another look.

The committee met Dec. 13 to begin its work, taking up two new policies and beginning its review of four controversial policies approved by the previous board majority and suspended by the new board when it took office on Dec. 4.

Those policies have to do with library and textbook materials; partisan, political, and social policy advocacy in the classroom; and sex-based distinctions in athletics.

Board member Susan Gibson, who chairs the committee, opened up the first meeting of the committee under the new board leadership by announcing that the review of the policies would be a slow and deliberate process that wouldn’t happen overnight and would involve community input.

“We don’t have an intent on moving a lot of them forward tonight because we think most of these policies deserve significant discussion,” said Gibson. “We welcome hearing from the public, but we expect this discussion to continue with a chance to hear from all stakeholders.”

Board president Karen Smith echoed Gibson’s remarks, adding that the committee does not plan to take quick action on any of the policies. “We want this to be a discussion-based building of these policies. We do want to hear from people. We want to bring in experts and get more information. We are not rushing things.”

The committee began the meeting by reviewing a non-controversial policy that would bring student representation from each of the district's high schools to the board table. The committee has asked the administration for additional guidance and input before moving the policy forward.

Delving into the suspended policies, the committee delayed any discussion on the newest policy - Policy 123.3 - regarding transgender athletes adopted by the outgoing board in November and suspended by the incoming board in early December.

The “Sex-Based Distinctions in Athletics” policy limited transgender athletes to playing on teams based on their birth sex. The policy was praised by the former board majority as a way of protecting fairness for female athletes but was criticized as exclusionary and harmful to LGBTQ+ students.

Discussion was delayed at the recommendation of solicitor David Conn who informed the board that in March the Department of Education is expected to be issuing its regulations.

“On the face of it, the existing policy, in my view, violates Title 9 as the Department of Education has interpreted it,” said Conn. “The vast number of school districts in Pennsylvania have no such
policy.”

“So we’re not exposing ourselves by having no policy?” asked Gibson.

“Correct. In fact, you would be in conformance with everyone else in the state,” said Conn.

Regarding the library book and textbook policies - 109.2 (Library Resource) and 109.1 (Age-Appropriate Standards for Textbooks and Resource Materials) - there was support among committee members to work off the retired policies, which set out basic parameters and
guidelines and directs the administration to develop internal procedures.

“I’m happy with the retired policy. It was well written and it takes into perspective the knowledge and the trust in our educators,” said board member Dr. Mariam Mahmud. “I would suggest we go back to that.”

Board member Heather Reynolds called the suspended policy “overreaching and unfair to the majority of people who live in the district.

“Every parent in this district has the opportunity to limit access to their child (to a book) by filing a form with the district. That is what’s important here. There already is a mechanism in place.”

Under the suspended policy, she said “any community member can say I don’t want any kid in the
district to read a book." At that point, said Reynolds, "You’re taking away my parental rights.”

As part of its review, Gibson said she’d also like to see similar policies from other districts regarding their procedures and processes.

The committee also discussed Policy 321 regarding "Partisan, Political, or Social Policy Advocacy Activities" in the classroom.

The suspended policy, aimed at taking political and social bias out of the classroom, stirred controversy over its exclusion of all political and social symbols, including the pride flag. Many
LGBTQ+ students argued that seeing pride flags in the classroom gave them a sense of belonging and security and argued that taking that symbol out of the classroom was an attempt to marginalize them.

“I had significant concerns about (the policy's) Constitutionality and its vagueness when it was first enacted,” said Gibson. “The policy is arguably unconstitutional. We do have the Pennsylvania School Board Association's (PSBA) sample policy and quite frankly I think the PSBA version adequately addresses the concerns. And we can start our discussion from that as our draft,” said Gibson.

Smith noted that the board has heard from community members over the last few years that there is concern with staff sharing their opinions in the classroom. “I’m not sure where that goes with policy. Is that something that is directed at administration and professional development?”

Conn said if a school district in Pennsylvania has a policy on electioneering in the classroom, it’s very basic and similar to PSBA’s recommendation. “Historically those concerns have been handled through the teacher evaluation process … It would be expected that faculty administrators would factor that into their evaluations.”

Reynolds argued that better communication between parents and teachers would resolve many of those issues.

“Conversations are needed and important,” she said. “Let’s make sure conversations are happening between home and school. I would encourage parents to pick up a phone or shoot an email if they do have concerns and have that conversation.”

Board member Rick Haring said teachers need the opportunity to teach and explore. “The feedback that I have heard from many teachers, is they feel somewhat restricted (under the suspended policy) … We need to make sure that we’re creating a culture at the schools where we have that open dialogue and feedback.”

“To have the language about indoctrination twice in that policy is just disturbing and upsetting,” added Reynolds.

After the discussion, the members appeared to be leaning in favor of the PSBA version of the policy as the framework for a new policy.

“We’ll keep this on the agenda for next month. That allows people time to continue to think about it and community members to review the two options,” said Smith.