The William Penn School District Policy Committee on Jan. 8 reviewed a draft district social media policy that would formalize how official accounts are managed and moderated. The draft, labeled Policy 8-16, was presented as a first reading and drawn from a PSBA template with updates noted from a recent PNN bulletin.

The presenter, Matt (Presenter), said the draft “ensures that if for any reason there would be a need to remove a comment on a district social media post, that it would have to clearly meet criteria in both our board policy, and the constitution, via the First Amendment, before it could be removed.” He said the committee elected to keep official district accounts designated as public forums rather than adopt optional alternative language.

Committee members heard that the communications director, Ms. Abramson, is named in the draft as the primary delegate to oversee and manage official accounts. Matt said authorizations to moderate or remove content would be routed through that office. The draft also states that personal social media accounts belonging to school directors, employees or students are not district accounts but can be treated as public records if they discuss specific district business.

The policy provides guidance on avoiding posting personally identifiable information and affirms compliance with applicable laws and regulations. It also limits endorsement of commercial entities and sponsorships that would produce individual employee gain while permitting promotion of district partnerships; the presenter cited recent fundraising work with Giant and a partnership with WHYY as examples of permitted promotion.

The committee treated the discussion as a first reading; no vote was taken on the policy itself. The committee verified there were no questions in the meeting chat or Q&A before moving on to the next agenda item. The policy will return for further review at a future meeting.