March 6, 2025 Work Session
The board met for their March Work Session on Thursday. Drason Beasley was absent.
- Agenda
- Live Stream - 5:31:52
In case you didn't see it just above, the meeting was over 5 and a half hours! There were many discussions, but three stood out to me: the budget, the library materials policy, and the science textbook adoption.
Budget
There was a good presentation on where the budget stands as the board prepares to vote on it. That vote will happen on Monday, March 17th. There's still a good bit that is up in the air because the state funding formula hasn't been finalized, but this is based off of projections and trends.
I found it fascinating that 37.75% of the district's funding comes from the state of TN, and 62.64% comes from the Williamson County Commission. Less than one quarter of one percent comes from federal funding.
They talked a lot about Chromebooks and whether we need as many as was originally budgeted. And in fact many have been taken out of the budget. K through 2nd grade are now not getting replacement computers since they are used so infrequently in the classroom.
Library Materials Policy
Decision Tree
The board adopted a decision tree to guide their process to determine whether a book should be restricted. They will be voting on a change to that decision tree. The change does not add or remove any steps, but just moves them around so they happen in a different order.
Removal of First Amendment Guidance
There was a section of the policy that specified that materials may not be removed "because of doctrinal approval/disapproval or based upon disagreement with viewpoints, political ideas or social perspectives discussed in the books." The board will be voting on whether to remove this section.
Mature Materials List
If the proposed changes pass, librarians will be required to categorize books onto a "Mature Materials List" and assign criteria to those books like "Language," "Sexual Content," "Mature Themes," "Disturbing Imagery," and/or "Violence."
Parents will be required to opt-in each school year if they want their student to have access to books on this list. Parents can also specify certain books to opt-in and exclude others.
Allowing Any Resident To File a Complaint
The discussion around this sounded like they will be adding to the policy that you don't have to have a kid in school (or be a WCS employee) in order to file a complaint. However, the policy amendment makes it look like that language is being removed. So I'm confused here. Hopefully this will be cleared up on Monday.
Science Book Adoption
Over the past month or so, the district has had viewing sessions so that the public could come inspect the science books that the district is considering adopting for the next 8 years. These materials range from Kindergarten to basically college textbooks for AP classes.
There are only a handful of books for each subject that are approved by the state of TN. Some subjects only had one!
There was a committee comprised of teachers and parents who reviewed the available materials and voted on which ones to adopt.
The timeline is important here. The district needs to select the books this month in order to place orders with the publishers in time to receive them for the teachers to get trained on the new materials.
Claire Reeves said that she feels rushed by this process and wants to delay the vote.
Jay Galbreath pushed back slightly and asked what info could they could gain that would inform us to go against the recommendation of the teachers?
Dr. Reeves said that she'd like to have more time to meet with teachers and get their opinions. She was the liaison from the board for this process. But through a mixup of communication, she only attended 1 of the 7 sessions that were provided to the public to review the materials. She said that she received the dates in September, but expected to receive reminders.
When folks were discussing delaying the vote, Eric Welch said that it sounded like we don't trust our science teachers. And if so, we should fire them and hire new ones. We shouldn't ask for a delay that will hurt students because a book says the word "climate."
Tony Bostic responded, but the mic didn't pick up what he said.
Mr. Welch clapped back, "Shut up, Tony!" Mr. Welch then caught himself and apologized to Mr. Bostic and to the board.
Jay Galbreath suggested that maybe they could approve the books that everyone is ok with and talk about delaying the problematic ones.
The problem is that even if they don't like certain aspects of a book, they don't have many other choices. So we'll see what they decide on Monday.
Come Say Hi
If you've read this far, consider coming to say hi to me on St. Patrick's Day! I'll be partying at the Williamson County School Board Meeting. Doors are at 6, starts at 6:30. 1761 West Main Street, Franklin, TN 37064. Wear green!
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