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Osceola school board approves broad 2026–27 rulemaking package after public hearing
Summary
After a public hearing with no public commenters, the Osceola School District board unanimously approved a slate of 2026–27 policy and rule changes covering mission/vision language, extracurricular participation, sick-leave programs, procurement, safety drills, data governance, AI use, student conduct and graduation requirements.
The Osceola School District board unanimously approved a comprehensive set of policy and rule revisions for the 2026–27 school year following a public hearing June 23 in which no members of the public spoke.
Dr. Boyd, who read the proposed changes into the record during the hearing, told the board the package updates district mission and vision language and makes targeted amendments across many operational areas to align with recent changes in state law. “These changes collectively revise the policy document to comply with recent changes in state law and to provide consistency with school district practice,” he said as he summarized the slate for members.
The revisions, as described by Dr. Boyd, include changes to extracurricular participation rules to comply with Florida statutory requirements on activity and athletic participation fees; clarifications to sick-leave donation and sick-bank procedures (including a 40-day cap for compassionate sick leave per qualifying event); procurement and contracting updates that centralize contract review through procurement services and align quote thresholds with federal acquisition guidance; and a new delegation authorizing the Department of Risk Management to negotiate repairs up to $10,000 with supporting estimates.
The district also updated safety and security procedures (requiring principals to submit after-action drill reports within 24 hours), broadened data-governance enforcement language across network, social-media and Internet-use policies, and added new compliance-and-enforcement paragraphs to AI acceptable-use guidance for students and employees. Changes to the code of student conduct were extensive, including adding unauthorized electronic-device uses, moving gambling to an "other misconduct" category, elevating bullying to a level-three offense and adding harassment and hate speech to level-four offenses. The student progression plan and graduation requirement charts were revised to remove obsolete language and reflect current state board rules and articulation agreements for college credit.
After Dr. Boyd paused for the public comment period and heard no speakers, the board took action. Miss Castillo moved to approve the entire package; Miss Garcia seconded, and the motion passed with an affirmative vote.
The board’s approval sets the revised policies to move forward for the 2026–27 school year and updates the district’s rule book and student conduct code to reflect both state law changes and district practice. The superintendent indicated staff will publish the final text with effective dates and updated revision pages.
The meeting recessed for the public hearing and returned to regular session after the vote. No additional public comment was recorded during the hearing portion.
