School District discusses new policy for student access to media materials
Forms put parents in control of library books their child may check out
The School Board of Lee County will further discuss the Media Center Access Form at its Monday briefing meeting, which would allow parents to have the opportunity to sign a form, as a way to “help parents/guardians better understand the process for student access to library media materials,” at the beginning of the upcoming school year.
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeff Spiro said the Media Center Access Form has three options forms which a parent can choose.
“We felt it was important that parents had the opportunity to direct what access they want their students to have,” he said, saying the district has an “opt out” form.
Options include: my child has full access with no limitations for check out from the school media center; my child is not permitted to check out books from the school media center and my child is not permitted to check out books from the school media center that have been formally challenged using the School District of Lee County’s Challenge to Instructional/Media Form.
The form also states that “I understand that an alert will be placed on my child’s Destiny account to reflect any restrictions, indicated by completion of this Media Center Access Form.” The form also includes a link that will take parents to a list of materials that have been challenged and reviewed.
Last year when the district pushed out the Health Emergency Student Form for parents to sign, only 1.97 percent of parents did not complete the form.
“We know they are completing the form,” Spiro said.
The new Media Center Access form will be available in FOCUS and must be completed at the beginning of each school year.
Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier asked the board for its input regarding the Media Center Access Form in regards to what should happen if a parent does not fill out the form.
“What do we want it to default to?” he asked.
Although Board Member Cathleen Morgan said she did not agree that they should be giving direction without Board members Debbie Jordan and Chris Patricca present, as it is a really important discussion that she feels those board members would like to weigh in on.
“We have a school year getting ready to open and law to comply with,” Bernier responded, adding that they need to release the FOCUS portal and get things appropriately aligned.
The board present agreed that the third option should be the default, my child is not permitted to check out books from the school media center that have been formally challenged and include those books that provide parent advisory.
There are also two additional forms for parents, a SDLC Parental Consent Form for Restricted Media Title and SDLC Parent Consent Form for Instructional Use of Restricted Media in Advanced Courses.
The first form is to inform parents that a media title was challenged, but was found to have literary merit by the Instructional Materials and/or Media Ad Hoc Committee.
The second form for advanced courses lists the book, with the author’s name and that it has been found “to be of literary merit, but contains sexually explicit material,” with the letter giving parents the opportunity to permit their child to use the material.
“We will call out the book and author and provide an alternate book and author,” High School Secondary Curriculum and Instruction Director Candace Allevato said, adding that teachers are asked to send the form home a month prior to instruction taking place.
House Bill 1069
The board was led through a lengthy presentation Wednesday afternoon regarding media center and classroom library processes as new HB 1069 was signed.
Board Attorney Kathy Dupuy-Bruno said HB 1069 not only includes media library materials, but also includes classroom library material.
“The challenge material form, at some point, will be prescribed by the State Board of Education,” she said.
The new bill includes material that is pornographic in material, or depicts or describes sexual conduct must be removed from the shelf within five school days of receipt of an objection and remain unavailable until the objection is ultimately resolved.
“Parents also have the right to read passages that are subject to objection during public comment at school board meetings,” Dupuy-Bruno said. “If the school board denies the right to read the passages due to the content, meeting the pornography prong, then the material must be discontinued from use by the school district. If the school board finds that any material violates any of the prongs such as it is pornographic, or depicts sexual conduct as defined, is not suited to the student, is inappropriate for the grade level and age group, then the school board has an obligation to remove the material.”
In addition, HB 1069 mandates committee meetings to resolve objections to instruction materials that are properly noticed and open to the public. The committee must include parents of the students who have access to such materials throughout the district.
“If a parent disagrees with a determination by the school board after a decision is rendered through the final process, which is an appeal to the school board, the parent may request the Commissioner of Education to appoint a special magistrate,” Dupuy-Bruno said, adding that it must be done within 30 days of request made by a parent.
The State Board of Education must approve, or reject that is more than seven calendar days, but less than 30 days. The cost of the special magistrate is borne by the school district, she said.
Purchase of Media and Classroom Library Material
Elementary Curriculum and Instruction Director Dr. Bethany Quisenberry said each school now is required to have a school committee review process that has a media specialist, literacy coach, an administrator that oversees the media center and a parent representative from SAC or PTO. They review the list and make a recommendation to the principal, which then is approved by the certified media specialist.
Teachers also must have their classroom libraries vetted, the books they personally purchase, and those libraries are required to be searchable on school websites. The books are scanned into Beanstack’s Classroom Library Connector.
Allevato said they have 10 certified media specialist who are working the 98 schools and almost 6,000 teacher classroom libraries.
With the new system, teachers will automatically see if the book is either rejected, or approved, when the books are scanned into Beanstack. If a book is not approved, the book needs to be removed, but if approved the book can go on the shelf automatically.
Teachers can also search a book title before purchasing a book to see the status of the book.
“Teachers get immediate feedback about materials for their classroom,” Allevato said.
She said now when a district media specialist approves or rejects a book, the entire district can see the outcome.
“Classroom libraries are also searchable,” Allevato said. “Every school has a link posted.”
Beanstack will provide a URL link, which will be posted to the school’s website.
“These are the classrooms inside of the school. It is not tied to individual teacher names,” she said.
Parents and community members challenging a book
Allevato said if a family, community member, or stakeholder want to submit a challenge, they now submit a form to mediaservices@leeschools.net. From there a new step was added, directors can now remove the material if there is a violation based on pornography, or sexual conduct.
The book must be pulled within five days, which is streamlined through Destiny, a resource parents can also use that shows all the books at the schools, and which titles their child has checked out. District staff will log into Destiny to determine which materials are at schools.
“If a parental consent form is placed on a book, then that will let schools know and flagged inside of Destiny to provide the parental position,” Allevato said.
She said they have created a Google sheet, which contains any challenged materials submitted on the Challenge Form. The principals get the link of the book title and author and if it is located in their media center they can pull the books.
The Ad Hoc Committee meets, makes a recommendation to the chief academic officer and then submitted to the superintendent. The school board and attorney then receives the outcome.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com