The move follows an ongoing legal review of several controversial policies passed by the previous GOP-led board.
The Pennridge School Board on Monday, Sept. 23 approved a revised books 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 prohibited resource materials containing “sexualized content.” It additionally required the school board’s approval for recommended resources and established 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.
During the board’s discussion, board members commended the policy for restoring control of library content to administrators and librarians.
“Putting it back into administrative hands and librarians, being the people that are the most educated to understand what should and shouldn’t be in the library for our students, that’s where it belongs,” said board member Chris Kaufman.
While supporting the policy, board member Jordan Blomgren criticized the requirement that parents read challenged books in their entirety, arguing that librarians are not held to the same standard for book admissions. Board member Leah Rash countered that librarians cannot possibly read every book in their selection and that the requirement is aimed at ensuring good faith challenges.
“It’s meant to stop people from just pulling things from social media and putting them as part of a challenge without having read the book,” said Rash.
“Children need exposure to diverse ideas and perspectives so they can learn empathy and critical thinking,” added Kaufman. “And we need to be able to provide them with these resources without having to worry about them being pulled for political reasons.”
Board member Ricki Chaikin took issue with Rash’s and Kaufman’s comments, arguing that the removed books were “pornographic.”
“We didn’t get here because of political books or pieces of literature,” said Chaikin. “It’s graphic pornography.”
“They’re Pulitzer Prize-winning books that have been deemed pornographic,” replied Kaufman. “There are many books that have pulled only for excerpts that have been on political websites.”
Board president Ron Wurz noted that the administrative regulation gives the board the flexibility to make adjustments in response to concerns and urged members to approve the policy.
“We’re not gonna solve the debate tonight, but we’re doing what we have to do, which is give librarians and administrators control over it,” said Wurz. “If there’s issues with the administrative regulation, we can put them on the agenda at the next committee meeting.”
Following some discussion, the board unanimously approved the revised policy.
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