With national attention being placed on book bans in schools across the country, many districts are reviewing their own policies.
The Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board is no different, recently reviewing a first draft of its Selection of Library and Media Materials Policy at its latest study session Tuesday, March 28.
According to Policy 606, the board will allow reviews of allegedly inappropriate instructional materials through established procedures.
A student, parent, guardian, staff member or district resident may file a challenge about instructional materials. A challenge is official when a written statement using a form requesting that it be removed or restricted is submitted, according to the policy.
The policy has a process if a parent or guardian has a concern about instructional materials. First, they meet with the building administration and teacher or media specialists where they can provide additional context for the resource; then the teacher or media specialist will support identifying a reasonable alternative title; and individual student library records can reflect the parent’s decision regarding subject or titles, meaning that parents and guardians can request that a note be made in the library database that restricts certain books for their kids upon check out.
The form used to create an official challenge to a book or material’s status states the cost incurred by the district for each challenge process is approximately $3,000. This covers the costs of acquiring copies of the material for each committee member’s review, time spent reading and researching the material, time spent in committee meetings, and time spent preparing the final decision document.
Superintendent Michael Thomas said the policy topic is very sensitive and important to many communities across the country and the district will ensure that it brings strong, enriching literature materials to students.
“We have to balance the responsibility that the materials that we are providing to our kids are developmentally and socially appropriate for our students,” Thomas said. “We also know there are some gray areas where there is going to be acceptable material to one family, but it might not be accepted for another family. We’re taking a lot of that into consideration as we go about this policy.”
Thomas said a team of staff was assembled last fall to begin a Learning Resources Committee to review the policy.
“We’ve engaged our library media specialists for their expertise and insights on this and heard from our community both in support of the changes to be made as well as some concerns that would be restricting materials,” Thomas said. “I think it’s our ethical obligation to ensure that what we provide is relevant, rigorous and academic in nature that will help our students learn and engage them as readers.”
Dan Edwards, Director of Teaching and Learning at PLSAS, said the committee has had several meetings and conversations regarding the policy and have compared it with existing and neighboring policies to revise it.
“Our former policy has strikethroughs essentially throughout the entire policy with a revised version that we took from the best of other policies that we were looking at in this study,” Edwards said. “There are a few key components that were outlined and highlighted specifically in the revision policy version that I think begin to address some of the concerns. There is definitely room for additional review and processes to make sure we are meeting the spirit of what the policy is intended to do.”
During the revision process, Amy Bullyan, school board member, raised several questions about the policy’s verbiage. In the Pre-K-12 Criteria for Selection section, Bullyan asked for clarification on the bullet point that stated materials needed to “be relevant to today’s world.”
“We’re in a time where some feel that things such as history (are) trying to be erased. Many things are happening in today’s world that people are not in agreement with,” Bullyan said. “So, when we use language such as ‘be relevant to today’s world,’ I just feel like that may cause concern. We’re in a space where military bases are being renamed, statues are being taken down, and there’s just a lot of things happening in our world today that makes people fear history is being erased.”
Thomas responded that the intent of the phrase, “be relevant to today’s world,” was to ensure that learning resources are reflective of today’s times.
“Let us not be held hostage by our past, but let us not be held hostage from reality either. I think we need to be OK with a certain amount of ambiguity here because let’s be honest, materials are produced in response to the present day,” Thomas said. “We want to ensure that our students have access to relevant materials both for the present day while simultaneously honoring literature of the past. I think what we’re trying to encompass here is very relative and needs to be relevant to our learners.”
To read Policy 606: Selection of Library and Media Materials Policy in its entirety, visit https://bit.ly/42TajKM.