State laws lead to increased policy changes at Talawanda
Dozens of policy changes were introduced at a Talawanda board meeting this month. Many have their origins in new state requirements, which the human resources director says have grown in recent months.
Twice a year, Human Resources Director Mike Malone introduces a slew of policy changes for the Talawanda School District to vote on. Recently, he says, those changes have gotten more substantial.
“A lot of the policy changes are kind of just wordsmithing … but it seems more lately there’s been more Ohio Revised Code changes that have come through,” Malone said. “It’s been a bigger change.”
At a Talawanda board meeting March 20, an agenda item included 25 policy changes. While that was down from 14 bylaw and 30 policy changes introduced last November, many of the adjustments have come from high-profile state directives.
After the second reading and board approval at an April meeting, for example, the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” will go into effect. That policy is required by House Bill 8, an Ohio law introduced by Sara Carruthers, former state representative for Oxford and Hamilton, which was passed last December.
The new policy requires that “sexuality content is age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate for the age of the student receiving the instruction” and prohibits instructional materials with sexuality content to students in third grade or below. Parents can review instructional material with sexuality content and opt out of having it taught to their children.
Under the state-provided language, sexuality content is defined as “any oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology provided in a classroom setting.” The definition explicitly excludes materials about sexually transmitted infections, child sexual abuse prevention, sexual violence prevention, abstinence and “incidental references to sexual concepts of gender ideology occurring outside of formal instruction or presentations.”
The policy will also require the district to notify parents of changes in student health services and mental, emotional and physical health conditions, including “any request by a student to identify as a gender that does not align with the student’s biological sex.”
Another new state-required policy will prevent the school district from designating multi-occupancy bathrooms as gender neutral and require students to use the bathroom that aligns with their biological sex. Students could receive accommodations based on “special circumstances” for “the use of single-occupancy facilities or controlled use of faculty facilities” under the policy language.
Talawanda contracts with Neola, a company specializing in education policy, to advise on regular policy changes. Neola keeps track of legislative updates and best practices, then meets with Malone, Superintendent Ed Theroux and Treasurer Shaunna Tafelski to explain the changes. Policy updates require two readings at separate board meetings to pass before being enacted.
Board members and others can also ask for policy reviews, Malone said, but if the board ultimately votes against Neola’s recommendations, the company won’t support the change if it gets contested in some way.
Even updates that may seem apolitical have their origins in state law. A major rewrite of Talawanda’s food services policy, for example, was generated because of the religious release time mandate in H.B. 8. Updates to the College Credit Plus program and field trip policies, meanwhile, were in response to Senate Bill 104, Malone said.
“It’s a challenge to follow the law, especially when the law is changing so quickly,” Malone said. “... There was a policy that was on this update that Neola reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, there’s already a new update for the legislature.’ That was before we could even get it to the board.”
Every policy introduced at the March board meeting is available for review online. The board will vote on the changes at its next regular meeting at 7 p.m. April 17.
