Board Rejects Teachers' and Parents' Textbook Recommendations

This was a long meeting with a lot of discussion about the 25-26 budget and some votes on the adoption of textbook materials that will be used for the next 8 years. All board members were present except Drason Beasley.

Public Comment

There were 3 folks who spoke about the OneWillco event where students of color were asked to share their experiences in WCS. There were stories of inequity in discipline, opportunity, and expectations. The students also reported that they would prefer a less tech-reliant education.

Two other speakers, including a current high school student, echoed that last point, calling for more hands-on learning.

An elementary school librarian urged the board not to adopt the policy that would direct librarians to label books as restricted.

And Angela Frederick implored the board not to delay the adoption of the new science textbooks, as was floated at the Work Session.

25-26 Budget

There was a lot of conversation about this budget. There was an $11m gap between projected revenue and this budget. This includes a reduction in spending from the current year's budget. They project a decrease in student population of around half a percent due to more seniors graduating than kindergarteners coming in.

Tonja Hibma submitted an amendment to spend an additional $909k on carts so that Chromebooks can be charged at school. This is an attempt to keep kids from having to take their computers home with them. This amendment unanimously passed.

The General Purpose School Fund Budget passed by a vote of 10-1. Donna Clements voted against it.

Library Material Policy

The board voted to change the Library Materials Policy, as I described in the Work Session. So there is now a requirement for librarians to catalog their collection with labels for different types of mature content. Melissa Wyatt voted against this change, but it passed 10-1.

Science Textbook Adoption

K-8 Textbooks

The board had a slate of fifteen different science subjects for which they needed to adopt new textbooks. The state of TN has a list of approved materials from which districts may choose. There was a lengthy process where two different groups analyzed each available textbook. One group was the teachers who will be teaching the subject. The other was comprised of educators and parents. At the end of this process, the members of these groups voted and came up with recommendations for their preferred resource.

Claire Reeves proposed an amendment to change the books used in K-8 from the recommended Savvas and McGraw Hill publishers to STEMscopes instead. In K-2, the teachers preferred Savvas over STEMscopes by a 2:1 ratio. In 3-5, over 80% preferred Savvas. In 6-8, it was split pretty evenly between Savvas and McGraw Hill. Nobody in the groups who reviewed materials for 6-8 voted for STEMscopes.

By a vote of 8-2-1, the board decided to override the committees' recommendations and use STEMscopes textbooks. Melissa Wyatt and Eric Welch voted against this amendment and Margie Johnson abstained.

AP Psychology

Dennis Driggers noted that he received many emails that expressed concern over the materials chosen for AP Psychology. He proposed an amendment to extract that book from the approval process for this month and delay it to next month, so that he can have time to review the book further.

During that discussion, Donna Clements proposed an amendment to that amendment that would select the Cengage textbook for this course, noting that this was an area of expertise for her. Dave Allen and Leigh Webb talked about the 9 AP Psychology teachers in the district. Their students have consistently performed exceedingly well on the AP Psych exam, and they unanimously chose the BFW Myers textbook. The parent/educator committee chose the BFW Myers textbook unanimously as well. But Ms. Clements wanted to choose Cengage instead. This effort failed by a vote of 2-9, with Tony Bostic joining Ms. Clements in the affirmative.

After that, they were back to merely delaying the adoption of the AP Psych textbook. That amendment passed 7-3-1. The dissent was Melissa Wyatt, Eric Welch, and Jay Galbreath, with Margie Johnson abstaining. So they will vote on this textbook probably next month.

Vote to Adopt the Textbooks

The board then adopted the amended slate of textbooks by a vote of 9-2, with Eric Welch and Melissa Wyatt in the dissent. They dissented because they would have preferred to take the recommendations of the educators instead of the other board members' overriding preference.

Call to action

Do you have a student who has taken AP Psych or might want to in the next 8 years? Please email the board and let them know how you feel about the options they have.

Also, if you want to join the OneWillco NCAA bracket challenge, click here

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