Conestoga administration made changes to the Code of Conduct in hopes of supplementing, refining and reinforcing rules for the 2025-26 school year. This year, administrators focused on disciplinary actions in student attendance and implemented new rules regarding nicotine products and gambling.
“Every year we review (the Code of Conduct) and we notice things that change, or things that are not really supporting students or not really addressing a certain area with the students,” said Dr. Patrick Boyle, 12th grade assistant principal, who helps oversee the code’s update process. “We review that at the end of each year, and then we make some changes if necessary.”
In April, the state of Pennsylvania began requiring all schools to count students’ unexcused absences for truancy. This year, administration is regulating student attendance more firmly by implementing more procedures and consequences for violations. Lateness before the conclusion of homeroom will be counted as truancy, and if students are late to school after homeroom, there will be an accompanying Evening Supervised Study, a two hour detention after school. If students are absent for more than half of the educational day, they cannot participate in any club-sponsored event, athletic game or extracurricular activity.
“In years before, if students only showed up for one period of the day, they were still considered in school for that day. (Being in school for one period) was like a total absence, so (the state of Pennsylvania) changed it,” 10th grade assistant principal James Bankert said. “That change went into effect for us last year, and the new change for us this year is that there is a different discipline consequence. There’s the kid who oversleeps five minutes versus oversleeping three hours — we drew that line as before or after homeroom.”
In addition to traditional vapes and cigarettes, administration also extended the Code of Conduct to explicitly prohibit students from possessing, using or distributing any nicotine product while on school property. Any students found distributing such products will also face harsher consequences.
“If someone brings a vape to school and they have a meeting in the bathroom with friends, everyone will receive discipline, but the person providing the nicotine receives more discipline. We consider that distribution,” Bankert said. “We’ve had instances where older kids will have it, and younger kids walk into the bathroom. The older kids say they can try it, and they all get caught. (The Code of Conduct) reflects extra responsibility in the person who (initially) bears the product.”
The Code of Conduct also features a new section for gambling, which has always been implicitly prohibited in Conestoga’s school policy and became codified this year. Gambling is not allowed on campus, on district transportation, at any district function or on any district platform.
School administrators met with teachers over the summer to review and discuss the additions to the code. During the first week of school, all students reviewed the new Code of Conduct in their homerooms, during which they signed an online form to agree to the terms.
“The idea of being in school is the educational component that (students are) supposed to be having,” Boyle said. “All the things in a Code of Conduct lead us to try to create an environment where all those students can have the best educational programming possible and experience as possible in Conestoga.”
Erin Zhang can be reached at [email protected].
