Conroe ISD to restrict board members from serving on library book review committees

Conroe ISD amended its procedure for the policy on instructional materials and library books at a regularly scheduled board of trustees meeting Feb. 21.

The amendment states that CISD board members will not be able to serve on the library book reconsideration committees, which are charged with reviewing requests for books to be removed from the shelves and submitting a report to administrators based on their findings.

Board members discussed the topic and came to the conclusion that board members will abstain from participation or overview of the committees. The vote passed 4-3.

Skeeter Hubert, Datren Williams, Theresa Wagaman and Stacey Chase voted in favor of the amendment.

Hubert said a board member sitting on the reconsideration meeting would result in a conflict of interest.

"I know that there have been books submitted for reconsideration by board members," he said. "It just seems silly to me that those board members want to serve on that committee to challenge a book that they submitted. It just reeks of way oversight."

Tiffany Nelson, Melissa Dungan and Misty Odenweller voted against the motion.

Odenweller said despite the vote, she would like for the board to at least be notified of changes from the reconsideration committee.

"By voting to not allow board members to serve on the reconsideration committee, by putting that forth, [we] are starting a very slippery slope," she said."At some point [we] won't have anyone involved in the safety committee unless it is mandated by the state. [We] won't have anyone in the finance committee unless we mandate that. I seriously do not think that is a good idea, because it will set a precedence for all other committees."

Other discussion surrounding the amendment of the district policy included a motion to remove the parental opt-in form allowing parents to choose whether their children can access a book labeled as "mature." A second motion included making an amendment to strike the categorization and rating of books altogether, and a third motion offered to take no action and adopt the policy as is. All three motions failed.

According to prior Community Impact reporting, students will still have access to any book under review unless it is in violation of the district’s policy of “protection from inappropriate materials.” In that case, the book would only be made available to students with written parental permission.