All School Board Meetings Aren’t ……..
On October 23rd PR School Board meeting was held at the A.W. Beattie Boardroom and not at the normal meeting conference room in the high school.
This blog will serve as a recap of that meeting.
Close to 100 of our community members attended the October 23rd PR School Board meeting, because of their recent discovery about our school libraries and the content of certain books made available to our young students.
Concerned community members, after reviewing the library materials, organized and showed up in numbers to voice their disapproval of what is available to their children. We have included the clip of each speaker during public comment.
One speaker read some passages from the book, “All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M Johnson. If you have read our most recent blog, “Do you know what is in our school libraries?”, then you know the content of the passage read.
Click here to hear the public comments at the beginning of the meeting.
The board mentioned that they received a number of requests from the community to address certain books in the library that should be pulled from the shelfs because of inappropriate content. At the time of the meeting, 13 books are being reviewed for reconsideration.
Superintendent Miller commented that this is the first time they received requests in the last 12 years.
While the library material was not on the agenda, the board allotted discussion at the end of the meeting to make a motion that the next board meeting the library policy come under review and the board determine how to move forward with the following items:
How did the books end up in the library if Policy 109.1 was being followed in the first place?
Since books have never come under review before, will the policy in place for their review practically work?
If a committee is selected from the committee to review the materials, how is this committee selected?
Will librarians be allowed on the committee or simply be resources for the committee to hear from during the review process?
What is the time frame of this process?
What do we do with the books while they are being reviewed? Alert to parents if your child checks them out? Still sit on the shelf?
This whole process needs to be understood better by the school board. Case in point - should a librarian be a member of the committee? They were the ones who selected the books to be in the library.
At the end of the meeting the community members spoke again and addressed the board.
Click here to hear the public comments at the end of the meeting.
The community is paying closer attention. Many people are upset about the content of these books. But make no mistake, this is NOT about banning books, as our opponents attempt to make it out as. The books can and are available in the public libraries so that parents who want their children to have access to these books, can access them. Under Policy 109.1, which gives guidelines as to how books are curated by the librarian, these books should NOT be available in our school libraries.
To close we want to bring to your attention to the energy that is rising up. One of the speakers at the board meeting was Pastor Jay. After last week's board meeting, Pastor Jay went home and did a live stream on what they experienced at the PR school board meeting.
Please click here and watch Pastor Jay’s post.
As members of the PR School Board Pine-Richland, parents have our commitment to do everything in our power on the board to ensure school transparency with parents and protect students from age-inappropriate, obscene and sexually explicit material. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, get out and vote on November 7!!
Leslie Miller - District #2
Mike Wiethorn - District #3
Phil Morrissette - District #3.
