Trustees Sheri Mills, Hannah Smith and Alex Sexton were absent from the meeting.
In May, the Texas Education Agency released policy options for school districts to follow regarding books and materials. Districts may choose a single policy, known as EF, or a split policy option, known as EFA and EFB.
CISD is looking into the split policy option, which allows the district to address classroom instructional materials and library book materials in separate policies, according to the district’s presentation.
The EF policy is in place to review all instructional resources, including teacher and library materials. At the workshop, Gina Peddy, executive director of curriculum and library service coordinator, said the current policy is too “broad,” and it has been unclear what the policy covered. The split policy provides a “clear division” among the different materials, Peddy said.
“We feel for consistency purposes ... two separate policies is the way to go,” Peddy said.
Instructional materials in the classroom would be covered under EFA, and library books and materials would be under EFB.
With the EFB policy, library books have an additional caveat for selection and clearance. All materials must be appropriate to students under the policy’s guidelines.
“Harmful books” are defined as having a dominant theme that appeals to an excessive interest in sex or nudity, are patently offensive to the prevailing standards of the adult community regarding what is suitable for minors and have no redeeming social value for minors, according to the proposed policy provided by CISD.
The split policy also has a parent review section. Whenever a parent challenges a book in the library, a committee from the district has 10 days to review the material. The members of the committee would be at the district level, not the campus level, and members would change throughout the school year, Peddy said.
A book challenged under EFA would be taken out of rotation for a year, and books under EFB would not be reconsidered again for 10 years, the current TEA policy recommendation stated. Trustees Michelle Moore and Eric Lannen brought up concerns over the time length under EFB. Lannen said "10 years feels like a long time to wait" before allowing a book to reconsidered.
No action has been taken by the district on the proposed policies.
