As one school finalizes its changes to a controversial policy, another school is in the midst of its own changes.

Slippery Rock Area School District finalized its changes to Policy 220 with the approval of its second reading at Monday's meeting.

Slippery Rock and Butler school districts were named among 55 districts statewide by the Independence Law Center, based in Harrisburg, as having outdated versions of Policy 220.

The group threatened the districts with a lawsuit if the policy was not updated. The group claimed the outdated policy infringed upon students' right to express themselves at school, including their religious beliefs.

Slippery Rock School Board approved its first reading at its Feb. 24 meeting.

At the time of the first reading, Slippery Rock Superintendent Alfonso Angelucci said the changes would update an outdated policy.

Despite not being listed in the group's letter, Moniteau School Board also passed its own first reading of the policy Feb. 24.

Moniteau School Board has its second reading of changes on the agenda for its March 23 meeting.

Moniteau School Board, led by board President Michael Panza, had a light agenda at its meeting on Monday that was held between two executive sessions to discuss personnel and legal matters.

“We were not named in the lawsuit, but our legal council represents several school districts in the county,” said Panza after Monday's meeting. “The law firm was ahead of the curve and wanted to make sure that our school district was doing the proper things.”

Moniteau's new version would include reworded language throughout the policy, particularly to the portion dealing with “unprotected student expression.”

Unprotected student expression is a list of conditions that would make non-school material illicit and allow the school's administration to remove the material.

Moniteau's changes also bring technology into the purview of the policy, allowing for the policy's rules to extend to “email, text messaging or other technological delivery.”

Panza said the changes come from recommendations from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the district's solicitor, Andrea Parenti.

“We're just making sure that we're not discriminating against anybody,” Panza said. “We want to make sure that we treat all the students fairly and in an equitable way.”