The Board of Education recognizes and supports the right of its employees to be involved in political and union activities and to campaign for candidates and issues. However, the exercise of this right must not interfere with the educational process and the delivery of educational services to the students. Campaign activities should not be conducted by employees on scheduled duty time and employees who are on duty should not be distracted from their duties by campaign activities conducted by employees who are not on duty. The Board has determined that the following regulations are necessary to prevent such disruptions and to ensure that employees are properly performing their duties during the school day:

1. Employees may not engage in campaign activities during scheduled duty time.

2. “Campaign activities” include lobbying other employees or students for their support or contributions, circulating petitions, distributing literature, and planning or preparing for such activities, whether done individually or with other employees and any of which is done in regard to national, state, or local elections for offices or on referenda questions, including school board, mileage levy, and bond issue elections.

3. “Scheduled duty time” means all times at which the employee is scheduled to engage in activities to fulfill his or her obligations under the employment contract, including but not limited to classroom, lab or shop instruction, lesson preparation, parent-teacher conferences, supervision of halls, classes, labs, shops, lunchrooms, or other areas, or of extracurricular activities; or in the case of non-professional staff, their assigned duties in the administrative, food service, transportation, maintenance, or other educational or non-educational areas.

4. Campaign activities may be conducted outside of employee’ scheduled duty time.

5. Employees may not direct campaign activities toward other employees who are performing scheduled duties.

6. The use of threats, duress, coercion, or intimidation in campaign activities directed at other employees is prohibited and constituters grounds for immediate disciplinary action, including dismissal.

7. District bulletin boards and mailboxes may not be used to post or distribute campaign materials.

8. Campaign materials may not be produced or posted on District property.

9. Violation of this policy by any employee is grounds for disciplinary action, including but not limited to dismissal.

Approved on August 18, 1997