EDUCATION BRIEFS CISD board restricted from book review CONROE ISD The board of trustees for Conroe ISD amended its procedure for the policy on instructional materials and library books at a regularly scheduled meeting Feb. 21. The amendment states CISD board members will not be able to serve on the library book reconsider- ation committees, which are charged with review- ing requests for books to be removed from the shelves and submitting a report to administrators based on their findings. 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 could result in a potential 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.” Board Member Misty Odenweller, who voted against the motion, said despite the vote she
News from Conroe & Montgomery ISDs
Trustees approve academic calendar for 2023-24 MONTGOMERY ISD The Montgomery ISD board of trustees approved the 2023-24 aca- demic calendar at a board meeting Feb. 21 with school beginning Aug. 10. In a Feb. 21 news release, Superintendent Heath Morrison said the process for the 2023-24 academic calendar began in September and sought community input through a survey conducted in October. Board Vice President Laurie Turner said in the release that the survey yielded a positive response to mimic spring and fall breaks from the 2022-23 academic calendar. “The district advisory committee members created a calendar that was responsive to the feedback we received from the survey and from the groups they represent,” she said. “We received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the fall and winter breaks in our current calendar, so we were excited to build those into next year’s calendar.” Spring break will be March 11-15, 2024, with a student holiday March 8. Fall break will be Oct. 6-10, 2023, with a student holiday Oct. 6.
POLICY DEBATES Conroe ISD rejected three proposed changes to library and book policies and accepted one.
Board of trustee members will not serve on book reconsideration committees
Remove parental opt-in form for “mature” books
Remove book ratings
Make no changes to policy
SOURCE: CONROE ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
would like for the board to at least be notified of changes from the reconsideration committee. 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. Students will still have access to any book under review unless it is in violation of district policies.
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