Wallingford staff propose clarifying personnel social media policy; board to refine wording

District staff presented proposed revisions to the Wallingford School District personnel social media policy, saying counsel had updated the policy and accompanying regulation to clarify legal guidelines about a public employer’s limited authority to regulate some employee speech online. "Shipman revised this policy, and it's accompanying regulations to clarify the legal guidelines regarding a board of education's limited right as a public employer to regulate certain forms of employee speech in the context of social media," the presenter said.

A board member raised concern that the draft uses the phrase "members of the school community," which could be read to include parents; the member recommended the policy instead reference district employees or staff. The presenter agreed to propose revised language that clearly limits the policy to personnel and to run the change by counsel before finalizing. The committee did not take a formal vote but agreed to advance the draft to the instructional committee for review and placement on the March agenda.

The presenter noted a few non-substantive formatting inconsistencies in the draft and said she would standardize capitalization and run final language by the district’s attorney before advancing the policy.