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School board delays votes on safety, reporting and staffing policies; sends package to first read
Summary
The board deferred final votes on a block of policy revisions—including threat assessment, child abuse reporting, professional contracts, planning/lunch periods and bullying—to a later meeting and asked staff to clarify language and correct typographical and statutory phrasing.
The Richmond school board received for action a package of policy revisions and agreed to treat the materials as a first read and revisit them at the next regular meeting.
The package included proposed edits to: policy 6.2 (school safety/threat assessment), policy 7.3.17 (child abuse and neglect reporting), policy 7.5 (professional staff contracts), policy 7.5.9 (planning and lunch periods) and policy 8.3.3 (bullying and other threatening behavior). Dr. Harris Mohammad moved to defer final action and have the set treated as a first read, and the board agreed to revisit the policies at the following meeting.
Members raised specific drafting and implementation questions. On threat assessment policy, board members asked that the document define "threat" earlier in the text and asked administration to clarify the purpose of a list of potential subjects to be assessed (which staff said stems from state code and reporting requirements tied to school climate surveys and threat-assessment reporting).
On child abuse reporting, Mister Percival noted that the Virginia code includes the phrase "in good faith" and recommended adding that wording to the establishment clause to match statutory language. Counsel confirmed the code contains that phrase and staff agreed to consider the edit.
Board members also questioned operational details in the child-abuse section—whether the division should call the hotline or use an online portal for reports. Staff said RPS typically does both to ensure an investigative number is captured and noted existing strong working relationships with the department of social services.
Other edits discussed included a request to change permissive language in staff-contract wording ("may be set forth" versus "shall be set forth") and a request for clearer definitions and protocol-level guidance in the bullying policy where the code uses the term "ordinary teasing." Administrators said the policy text reflects the statutory language and recommended using the division's bullying protocol to provide operational detail and continuity between schools.
Board members asked staff and counsel to prepare corrected draft language, identify and fix typographical errors (including a misplaced reference to "exploitation" and lines that should reference "under Virginia code"), and return with the packet for first-read consideration at the next meeting. No final policy votes were taken at the Jan. 8 session.
