The Cy-Fair ISD board of trustees discussed proposed revisions to local board policy to move to an opt-out process for parents deciding on their student's access to certain library materials; it currently stands as an opt-in process.
The board of trustees met for a Nov. 5 work session to discuss agenda items ahead of the regular meeting.
The gist
Trustee Lesley Guilmart said her goal for switching to an opt-out process is to better align the local board policy with state law, as the local policy is currently more restrictive.
In accordance with Senate Bill 13, school districts are required to allow parents to submit a list of materials they don’t want their students to access in the school’s library.
“I’m suggesting that this policy, as it is, is onerous for parents or they're not even aware of the requirement to opt their children into being able to access certain books,” Guilmart said. “We know that reading engaging books correlates with higher academic achievement; this has ramifications for our students' education and their learning."
The discussion
Guilmart said 16% of high school students in CFISD were granted access to books from the adult level collection during the 2025-26 school year. Library materials are sorted into these collections based on subject matter and reading level, Guilmart said.
“I’m always gonna err on the side of caution for our students and for our kids,” Trustee Todd LeCompte said.
LeCompte said he believes the current process protects the district, as it allows parents to be the ones giving permission for their children to access these materials.
“I think it's much more likely that we’re going to get angry phone calls or angry emails from parents whose students are getting access to objectionable materials without their knowledge, versus a parent or two that was unaware that their child didn’t have access to a book and had to fill out a form,” Trustee Justin Ray said.
The decision
Ahead of the proposed revision’s second reading, the board of trustees requested action steps from the administration including:
“I want to make sure that whatever we do with this policy, that we do not put an additional burden on them [librarians], because as we discussed, they are already split between campuses,” Trustee Kendra Camarena said.
Also on the agenda
CFISD received the highest level of assurance on its fiscal year 2025-26 financial audit, which found the district's administrative cost ratio sits at 3.74%, or 4.81 percentage points lower than the Texas Education Agency threshold.
The board of trustees received a report on student screen time monitoring, which provided an update on the district’s initiative to prioritize active learning through:
Developing campus usage reports
Continuous curriculum alignment
Campus-specific communications
Ongoing review of screen time data
Looking ahead
The board of trustees is slated to meet Nov. 9 at 6 p.m. for a regular meeting in the Mark Henry Administration Building Boardroom at 11440 Matzke Road, Cypress. A livestream option can be found here.
