DOYLESTOWN, PA—The Central Bucks School District’s new school board last week continued to review some of the controversial policies passed by the previous board. And while it looks likely that the versions passed by the previous board will not survive, the board is taking a careful approach to phasing them out.
When the new board held its first meeting since winning power in the November elections, it immediately voted to suspend several of those policies. The new board suspended policies that restricted “sexualized content” in resource materials for students (Policy 109.1), created a process to allow any taxpayer to flag books for removal from school libraries (Policy 109.2), restricted transgender females from participating in girls’ sports (Policy 123.3), and required teachers to take a neutral approach to prevent them from “indoctrinating students” (Policy 321).
At the Jan. 24 meeting of the Policy Committee, school board officials reviewed policies on textbooks and resource materials in classrooms, materials in school libraries and the policy requiring teachers to remain neutral. Board President Karen Smith explained that committee members were “leaning toward” reinstating old policies that had been retired, not bringing back the polices passed by the previous board.