At a policy meeting on Sept. 10, the school board reviewed proposed updates to Policy 105 (Curriculum) prompted by state and federal changes and agreed to move the revised policy to first reading after directing staff to add a website-posting requirement for curriculum materials.
Why it matters: The changes reflect mandatory state and federal requirements and affect what students are taught and how parents can review instructional materials.
The revisions include federal additions that expand required observances beyond Constitution Day to include Citizenship Day, Arbor Day and Bill of Rights Week. "Prior to this, Constitution Day ... now it's expanded to Constitution Day, Citizenship Day, Arbor Day, and Bill of Rights Week," a staff member said, noting the change came from federal law. Board members pressed staff to make the district's curriculum materials easier for families to find online.
"A listing of all curriculum material shall be made available on the district website," Chair Chris read back during the meeting as the precise wording the board asked be added. Board members requested that the sentence be added to Policy 105 and to AR 105.1 (review of instructional materials by parents, guardians and students) so the requirement appears where parents would reasonably look.
On classroom content, a board member asked that students be taught practical civics basics — for example, how to identify their municipality and county and the difference between a commonwealth and a state — at age-appropriate levels. Megan, a curriculum committee staff member, told the board that civics standards are threaded from kindergarten and that the district offers a stand-alone high-school civics course in 11th grade. "Curriculum is the tool that is used to help teachers work through the daily work with students so that they can meet the academic standards," Megan said, adding that curriculum-specific changes should be handled by the curriculum committee rather than by Policy 105 itself.
Board action and next steps: Chair Chris moved to place Policy 105 on first reading with the agreed edits (adding a website-posting sentence and clarifying curriculum vs. standards). Staff agreed to draft the precise language and circulate it by email so the board could review the exact wording before the public first-read posting. No formal roll-call vote was recorded during the meeting; the item was advanced by consensus to first reading.
Context and constraints: Staff identified the source of some language as model text from PSBA (Pennsylvania School Boards Association). The board asked staff to avoid embedding detailed curriculum content in policy language and instead to ensure the curriculum committee evaluates and documents specific course-level expectations and civics content.
Ending note: Staff will return a revised Policy 105 reflecting the website-posting language and the agreed edits and will coordinate with the curriculum committee on any curricular changes staff plan to propose for committee review.