Board reviews first readings of four revised district policies; updates include ethics, nondiscrimination, student assignment and academic integrity

The Mahwah Township Board of Education’s Policy Committee presented four policy and regulation updates for first reading at the Jan. 22 meeting.

Policy 15240 (Administrator’s Code of Ethics) was revised to remove the word “substantial” where it described conflicts of interest, to add a reporting requirement for offers of meals, entertainment or hospitality, and to replace prior financial‑disclosure language with updated wording (as summarized in the committee report). Policy 1550 (Equal Employment / Anti‑Discrimination Practices) was revised to replace the phrase “public education system of New Jersey” with “Mahwah Township Public School District” and to replace the term “handicapped” with “disabled.” Policy 5120 (Assignment of Students) was amended to add a sentence stating that requests to assign students to a school outside their designated attendance area will be considered on a case‑by‑case basis, and to clarify the principal’s authority to assign students to grades, classes or groups. Policy 5701 was renamed in the revision from “Plagiarism” to “Academic Integrity.”

Committee members reported that the changes reflect current practice and updated language and that the policies will return to the board for subsequent readings and a final vote at a later meeting. The transcript and committee report cited these as first‑reading actions; no final board vote on the policy language was recorded in the meeting excerpt.