Pennridge school board members look on at a February meeting
The Pennridge School Board Monday approved a first reading vote of a revised policy governing library content.
The move follows an ongoing legal review of several controversial policies passed by the previous GOP-led board. Approved in September 2022, the original policy prohibits resource materials containing “sexualized content.” It additionally requires the school board’s approval for recommended resources and establishes a stringent resource review process, with criteria including “value to the total collection.”
Following the policy’s approval, parent Darren Laustsen successfully sued the district after discovering that officials were removing books without following protocol. In his ruling, Judge Jordan Yeager found that the district “effectuated a cover up of faculty, administrators, and other non-students’ removal of books from Pennridge High School’s library shelves.”
Since the ruling, district administrators have been reviewing 21 books that were secretly removed. But at an August 19 committee meeting, the board decided to pause the review of the remaining books while the policy is being revised.
Under the revised policy, the most significant changes include a narrowed focus on classroom libraries and library materials and a shift to an administrative regulation, rather than a formal policy. The regulation spells out 10 standards and six criteria for library content selection, including supporting and enriching the curriculum, educational significance and relevance, age-appropriateness, diversity of perspectives and backgrounds and unbiased content. Selections will be finalized by the building principal and Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Kathy Scheid.
The regulation also delineates a request for reconsideration process. Requests will be reviewed by a committee of professional staff members, building and district administrators and community members. The committee will read the material in its entirety before submitting its recommendation to Superintendent Angelo Berrios, who will issue a final decision.
The change additionally leaves non-purchased classroom library books up to the discretion of teachers but establishes an expectation that the books will be properly vetted and exclude “inappropriate or potentially offensive language or themes.”
During the board’s discussion of the revised policy, board members Jordan Blomgren and Ricki Chaikin raised concerns about oversight of non-purchased classroom library books. Scheid replied that teachers are given a memo at the beginning of the school year detailing expectations for library content and that any concerns are reviewed with the content area supervisor or building principal.
“There is no formal process for a challenge, but fortunately there hasn’t really been a need for one,” said Scheid. “We really do keep an eye on all the resources, and we trust that our teachers are discerning and understand what the values are in this district.”
“As teachers, we tend to be more risk-averse. We could be professionally disciplined,” added board member and teacher Bradley Merkl-Gump. “We are always, as teachers, very careful about what we put in and what we don’t put in.”
Blomgren additionally criticized a purported imbalance between progressive and conservative viewpoints in library content, which Scheid disputed.
“It’s never our intention not to have balance,” said Scheid. “It’s always our intention to ensure that we have a broad range of topics for students, not leaning one way or the other.”
Director of Student Services Ernest Johnson said that additional revisions will incorporate feedback from administrators, librarians, board members and members of the public. One suggested revision included more explicit language regarding balance.
Following the discussion, the board unanimously approved a first reading vote of the revised policy.
Policy update plan
The board presented a policy update plan featuring a list of the board’s policy priorities, including a change to the dress and grooming policy that directs staff to waive penalties for student non-compliance due to educational instability and a new responsible contractor policy that will establish criteria for vetting contractors with deference to local contractors.
An additional priority is a revised advocacy policy to “re-instill trust in our staff.” Passed by the previous board in September 2022, the original policy prohibits all advocacy symbols and statements, including on topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Book removal
Berrios announced that “Blue is the Warmest Color” will be removed from district libraries following a review by a committee of administrators and teachers over the summer. A graphic novel, the book depicts a love story between two French women.
The next Pennridge School Board meeting is on September 23 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit pennridge.org.
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