School board votes on books
Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005
After 2 1/2 hours of discussion Thursday night, the Fayetteville School Board was still divided on how to respond to three library books that have come under fire for being sexually explicit.
When it came time to decide, the board voted 4-3 to follow a recommendation from Superintendent Bobby New to place the books in schools' parent library collections. Board members Tim Hudson, Tim Kring and Steve Percival cast the dissenting votes.
The three books in question - "It's So Amazing," "It's Perfectly Normal"and "The Teenage Guy's Survival Guide" - were evaluated by an appointed materials evaluation committee after parent Laurie Taylor filed formal complaints against them.
New's recommendation on "It's So Amazing"differed from the recommendation the appointed materials evaluation committee made.
The committee said the book should be allowed to stay in the "general collection"at elementary and middle school libraries.
New recommended the book be kept in the parent collection at the elementary school without children being allowed to check it out. He recommended mid- dle school students be allowed to check it out provided two school officials approved it. The latter clause sparked some discussion on whether it was appropriate for a school officials to allow a book to be checked out without notifying the parents. New defended that exception on the grounds that the book is appropriate as a sex education tool for its targeted age group. There might be children from broken homes who could benefit from it.
The board decided to amend the motion to say officials would attempt to notify the parents in that case.
In particular, Hamilton said he had a problem with school officials allowing the book to be checked out without parental consent. "It's Perfectly Normal"was allowed to stay in parent libraries at the elementary school "without child checkout."At the middle school, parents would have to give their children permission to check it out.
On "Survival Guide,"New recommended it remain in the parent library but unavailable to students at the middle school. At the junior highs and high school, parents should be notified after it is checked out if those schools start carrying the book.
The final vote was preceded by much discussion from New and Taylor, who was allowed about 30 minutes to speak on the issue.
Afterwards, Hamilton asked her to clarify her official request, which was that the books should be placed in the parent libraries and not checked out with parental consent. He seemed to imply most of New's recommendations were in line with that idea.
The board allowed extensive public comment from the audience, hearing a mixture of ideas against keeping the books and allowing them to stay in the libraries. At least 16 people spoke, including state Sen. Jim Holt, who said the books were "graphic materials."
Ramay Junior High teacher Dan Marzoni suggested the board should uphold the materials evaluation committee's recommendations and not attempt to address an appeal of its findings. "The policy was designed to take this out of the political realm,"he said.
Hudson said leading up to the vote that he was leaning toward upholding the committee's recommendation.
Percival also gave a brief report on the recent millage election in which voters rejected a 4.8-mill property tax increase.
Turnout was extremely poor among registered voters age 18-39 and 40-49. That's the primary age group of parents who have children in the schools, he added, and the board should have done more to convince them to vote. "That's where I think we didn't do our job,"he said.
Unfortunately, board member Susan Heil noted, younger age groups do not vote like they should. "Getting those people out is a major culture change,"she said.
Now that the millage question has failed, the board should have a meeting sometime in June to discuss whether it wants to make increasing teacher salaries its top priority, Percival said.
If so, it will be "painful"to find $3.5 million to fund a significant salary increase.
Had the millage passed, the plan was to raise the base salary to $38,000.
In other business, the board:
• Hired Edward "Ted"Whitehead as an assistant principal at McNair Middle School for the 2005-06 school year.
• Approved a new student handbook and updated policies in such areas as student discipline, student vaccinations and administering medication.
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