Guilford County schools seek public input on staff organization policy changes

For Guilford County students who play sports, join clubs or travel with teams, the biggest practical change in the school policy package is a rewrite that would move key athletics rules out of board policy and into a faster-changing administrative regulation. Guilford County Schools wants to repeal Policy 3621 on interscholastic athletics, shift those details into Administrative Regulation 3620-R and keep the district more nimble when state rules change.

That matters because the district says athletics are governed by State Board of Education policies and the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. The proposed language also puts a sharper spotlight on eligibility issues that affect daily participation, including attendance requirements and rules for students who are dually enrolled or homeschooled. The revised Policy 3620 would carry the title Extracurricular Activities and Student Organizations, matching the North Carolina School Boards Association model and folding student-speech provisions into that policy instead of leaving them attached to athletics.

The package also includes a proposed new Policy 7710 on membership in professional organizations. That change would affirm employees’ right to join and participate in professional groups, but it would bar membership activities during instructional time, while school is in session or while staff are carrying out job duties. Guilford County Schools says that language tracks versions used in other North Carolina districts, where employees are free to join professional organizations and the district does not try to influence that choice.

Another revision would retitle Policy 7720 as Employee Political Activities. The district says that change is meant to separate employee political activity from student-speech content, while still preserving the core idea in North Carolina model policy that school employees keep their rights as citizens to register, vote, campaign, run for office and take part in political or civic activity without those rights being diminished by district employment.

The public still has time to weigh in. Guilford County Schools is accepting comments through June 11, 2026, and the Guilford County Board of Education is expected to consider the revisions at its June 9, 2026 meeting at 6 p.m., part of the board’s regular second-Tuesday cycle. The district serves more than 70,000 PK-12 students at 126 schools, which means these changes would reach classrooms, sideline routines and staff workdays across Guilford County.