ST. GEORGE — A new state law requires schools to be places of established curriculum and not a public forum. Washington County School District trustees unanimously agreed and Tuesday ratified a policy that complies with this law.
Director of Technology Jeremy Cox presented to the board the addendum of Policy 1730, which governs what can be on display on school property regarding employees’ personal beliefs.
“The spirit of this policy is to reinforce the concept that schools are not a place for public forum,” he said. “They’re really a place for established curriculum, for things approved and we shouldn’t bring in our personal beliefs and personal opinion into that mix because we are placed in a position of trust with minors. There is just not a place for that.”
The updated Policy 1730: Code of Conduct/Appropriate Behavior Policy specifies that school property is not to be used for public forums to display items concerning religion, politics or personal viewpoints.
The exception is “personal space,” which is defined as “on a staff member’s desktop, or when applicable, in a staff member’s office,” as long as “it does not become a distraction to the learning environment.”
Policy review is required every three years and changes are mandated by recent legislation. The board reviewed the following policies: Policy 3700: Technology Acceptable Use Policy, Policy 3730: Technology Security Policy, Policy 4212: Learning Materials, Policy 8000: Special Education Policies and Procedures.
Cox presented revisions to the board, but only Policy 4211: Media Center Library Materials required action.
As reported previously, minor changes were needed to help employees define library materials as curricula or reading materials for personal student use. The curricula are regulated by Policy 4212 while personal student materials are regulated by Policy 4211.
In this policy, the right of parents to know the history of library checkouts by their child was added, and it outlines a new database that allows for parental supervision. This falls in line with H.B. 465: Public School Library Transparency Amendments.
“We had started that process before the Legislature required it, so that is something that we felt was important,” board member Terry Hutchinson said while motioning to approve it.
The policy updates were approved unanimously by the board.
Cox also addressed the policy on technology use on school property.
“Our previous policy contained a lot of terminology that was very, very outdated,” Cox said, “including, because of how technology changes, it prohibited things people do every day.”
In Policy 3730.3.10 “Internet Content Filtering” was removed from the policy and added to Policy 3700.
All remote access to district internet must now be approved by the director of technology.
Special Education Director Hollee Cullen presented the revisions for Policy 8000. The Utah Board of Education, earlier in the spring, revised its policy regarding special education.
The biggest change in this policy is the developmental delay category as service was extended by one year in age.
All policies, except 4211 are now open to comment for 30 days.
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