Pennridge will change the policy surrounding the ban on Pride flags and provide an update on the book ban policy

A year later The Democrats gained control of the Pennridge school boardthe new administration plans to rescind a controversial policy that banned staff “advocacy” in classrooms, including Pride flags.

At a meeting earlier this week, the board voted 5-3 along partisan lines to rescind the policy, which was adopted in 2022 under a Republican-majority board. It prohibited personnel from pleading “personal beliefs about politics, social, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity” in the classroom.

But the reversal is not yet final: the issue now goes back to the board’s policy committee, where the board’s chairman suggested some changes are likely to be made.

The vote is also not expected to end election fighting Bucks County district, which continues to face criticism over the removal of library books and rules around which transgender students can use restrooms.

“It is painfully clear that the legacy of extremism is not a thing of the past,” Laura Foster, a Pennridge parent and advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion policies, told the board meeting Monday.

Here’s where the Pennridge school board stands on some current issues:

Withdrawal of the Advocacy Policy

Pennridge is one of a number of districts that came under Democratic control in last year’s elections and has been at the center of the culture war battle. But it moves slower than some of its kind, such as Central Bucksby repealing the policies of his predecessors.

However, like Central Bucks, Pennridge is now on the verge of reversing its advocacy policy and returning to its original version, which only specified that staff should not engage in “political activity” at the school. (That version, which mirrors one used in some other districts, says that studying politics and discussing political issues in class is allowed.)

The advocacy bans are “a vague policy,” said Ron Wurz, chairman of Pennridge’s board of directors. Wurz was originally elected as a Republican, but was re-elected as a Democrat last year after dissenting the hiring of a curriculum consultant by the former board associated with the conservative education movement.

The policy may “make teachers feel uncomfortable” because they don’t know how to support students, Wurz said.

Arguing that the advocacy policy should be maintained, Republicans have raised concerns about teachers displaying Pride flags. Some board members said teachers who didn’t have flags were seen as not having a “safe space.”

“If we want to allow that, we have to allow everything,” including “real Pride flags,” said a Republican board member, Ricki Chaikin, at a policy committee meeting earlier in October. Another member, Jordan Blomgren, warned about teachers grooming children – comments that drew resistance from Democrats. “That has nothing to do with advocacy or politics,” said Bradley Merkl-Gump, a Democrat on the board.

During Monday’s board meeting, Blomgren noted that the board had received an email from the Gays Against Groomers group, calling on it to maintain the current advocacy policy. (Democrats on the board pointed out that Gays Against Groomers has been designated an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for “dehumanizing anti-trans rhetoric.”)

In an effort to reinstate the district’s former policy banning only political activity, Wurz said in an interview that the board could revise it to include religious advocacy. Some Republican board members have expressed concern about teachers making anti-Christian statements.

More book moves

The current administration has already rescinded the Republican-backed library books policy that banned “sexualized content.” But some in the community have expressed frustration that books continue to be removed from library shelves.

The district announced earlier this fall that the middle school librarian had reviewed 22 books removed from the library’s shelves during the 2022-2023 school year – removals that were not publicly announced at the timebut which administrators acknowledged were a response to the ban on sexualized content.

While the librarian determined that six of those books must be returned to the libraryshe removed fourteen others and referred two for review by a reconsideration committee.

The district has also removed another 11 books and graphic novel series from library shelves based on challenges filed this school year — some due to its old policy banning sexualized content. But others were removed and deemed inappropriate under the new policy adopted by the Democratic administration in September.

At the October policy committee meeting, Leah Foster Rash, a Democrat on the board, said she worried that the book removals were “out of touch” with what students want to read, and that the district could miss opportunities to capture interest from to wake children. .

“These are books that our librarians believe are not age appropriate for our students,” Wurz said Monday during the school board meeting, providing an update on the board’s progress on policy changes. He said that “now is the time to let our professionals handle any future issues.”

Bathroom policy

The board is also criticized for the bathroom policy. While the Democrats repealed those of the previous administration policy that required students and staff to use bathrooms in accordance with their sex rather than their gender identity, they replaced it with rules that distinguished between bathrooms for “biologically” male or female students, and others for students who identified as male or female.

According to him, that distinction is still discriminatory a federal complaint which Pennridge accuses of being one hostile environment for students of color and LGBTQ students. The complaint was originally filed in November 2023, but updated in August with new allegations.

Foster, co-founder of the RIDGE Network, one of the groups that filed the complaint, noted Monday that queer students “still have limited bathroom access”; Critics say restricting transgender students to “gender identity” or single-use bathrooms could force them to leave themselves. She demanded the board address a persistent “climate of racism, homophobia and transphobia” in the district.

Wurz told community members Monday that “compromises will be made.” In an interview, he rejected the claim by some that the administration would “swerve to the right.”

“The majority of people believe that solutions should be approached from a balanced approach,” he said.