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William Penn policy committee reviews updates to public‑records, calendar, law‑enforcement and child‑abuse policies; no votes
Summary
At its April 2025 meeting the William Penn School District policy committee presented first readings of four updated policies and reviewed several items for second reading but took no formal votes because it lacked a quorum. A board member asked staff to clarify when police are called to schools under the student code of conduct.
The William Penn School District policy committee reviewed first readings of four district policies — public records (Policy 801), school calendar (Policy 803), relations with law enforcement (Policy 805.1) and child abuse (Policy 806) — at its April 2025 policy committee meeting but did not take formal action because the committee lacked a quorum.
The discussion covered what changes were made and the legal references that informed them. Dr. Williams, district staff, said the public‑records update clarifies the district’s responsibilities under the Right to Know Law and that Policy 801 was adopted by the district on March 4, 2025. He said Policy 803, the school calendar policy, was revised to reference both instructional days and instructional hours and to point to guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Education about instructional time.
The committee also discussed Policy 805.1, relations with law enforcement, which Dr. Williams said was updated to amend incident‑reporting language and to add legal citations to sections of the Pennsylvania School Code; he reported that Policy 805.1 was updated Feb. 28, 2025. Changes to Policy 806, child abuse, were described as including Act 33 of 2023 and other amendments to the Pennsylvania Public School Code; Dr. Williams said the act was signed into law in December 2024 and the policy was updated in March 2025. Policy 707 (use of facilities) was noted as having required edits to reflect the district’s organizational chart and was updated Feb. 24, 2025. Several other policies were listed for second reading, including Policy 146 (trauma‑informed approach), Policy 218 (student discipline), Policy 218.1 (weapons) and Policy 218.2 (terroristic threats).
Board member Miss Hough pressed for specific guidance in Policy 805.1 and related documents on when school staff call law enforcement. “I’m curious as to when law enforcement is called to our schools,” Miss Hough said, asking whether incidents such as vaping, fights or other offenses trigger police response on first or subsequent occurrences or whether that is left to principal discretion.
Dr. Williams replied that the district typically follows the student code of conduct and that he would research specifics and report back. “I’ll definitely will research the answer,” he said, and later confirmed, “I will follow‑up.” The committee did not adopt or vote on any of the policy updates at the meeting; a participant noted the committee lacked a quorum and that the meeting was not a voting meeting.
The policy committee scheduled its next meeting for May 1, 2025.
Votes at a glance: No formal votes were taken; a motion to approve the updates to the four first‑reading policies was raised but not put to a vote because of lack of quorum.
