The Oxford Area School District board voted June 17 to adopt a revision to policy 6300 after months of committee work and public debate over social-emotional learning materials and library content.

Resident Ronnie Lutz addressed the board during public comment, saying the district had not followed its own board policy 8320 for policy adoption and asserting that passing policy 6300 that night would violate both district procedure and the Pennsylvania Sunshine Law. Lutz stated, “passing this policy is, again, a violation of your own policy as well as potentially the sunshine law.”

Lutz also alleged that district library holdings and curriculum materials conflicted with federal guidance referenced in public remarks, naming specific titles he said were in the libraries. Those claims were presented as public comment and were not verified during the meeting record.

Administrators and board members discussed the policy in committee for several months; at the meeting Superintendent David Woods recommended the revision and the administration placed multiple policy series items before the board for readoption.

A motion to approve the recommended revision of policy 6300 was made and seconded; board members publicly thanked the committee for months of work and acknowledged dissent within the board on certain provisions (one member stated, “I still do not agree with the opt out versus the opt in”). The board clerk recorded a voice vote, and the chair announced the motion carried after an indicated aye/nay vote.

Separately, board member motion language to “end debate on the topic of social emotional learning, approve the response by Doctor David Woods as the district's formal position, and remove the My World social studies curriculum from the agenda of the next education committee meeting” was proposed from the dais. District counsel and staff advised that a motion made from the floor in that form could be out of order because it was not routed through regular channels; the chair declined to accept the floor motion as presented. The transcript records a subsequent clarification that the motion was withdrawn.

The meeting record shows the board voted to readopt several policy series items and to proceed with the revised policy 6300. The final motion to revise policy 6300 passed by voice vote; neither the administration nor the minutes attached to the agenda recorded specific roll-call tallies for that motion in the public transcript.

Board members asked the public to review curriculum materials at the district office and emphasized transparency; Superintendent Woods and others stated the district follows state standards and asserted compliance with federal executive order 14190, as read aloud at the work session, though such compliance claims were not adjudicated during the meeting.