Conroe ISD board acknowledges ‘glaring problems’ in book review process, maintains previous restrictions on 19 books

After hours of public comments from students and teachers and debate among board members about the legality of the district’s book review process, the Conroe ISD Board of Trustees finally voted on June 18 to uphold restrictions on 19 books previously imposed by its own book review committee.

What happened

Four people, including Andrea Yang, Erin Miller, Stevie Fox and CISD teacher Theresa Newman, all of whom spoke or made statements at the meeting, called for a reconsideration of the 19 book titles.

During the discussion, many speakers spoke about the books being removed because excerpts were read. In the objections, the members of the review committee called for the books to be read in their entirety.

“I haven’t read those books, and we’ve asked them to implement something that I don’t want to go back and say, ‘You did that wrong,'” said board chairman Skeeter Hubert. “What I want to do is go back and discuss the policy we put in place.”

Before the speech to the board, a book review committee was present, consisting of three parents representing the catchment areas of College Park, Grand Oaks and The Woodlands high schools, a middle school librarian and teaching staff, according to the school district’s website.

“I have not seen anyone on this list other than a single assistant principal interact directly with secondary students, and the committee does not record those meetings, so those of us who objected have not had the opportunity to hear their discussions and offer clarifications,” Fox said.

What you say

Although the board ultimately voted 5-2 to maintain restrictions on all 19 books, discussion among board members highlighted concerns about the district’s book disposal policy.

“During this process, I noticed some glaring problems that need to be addressed,” Hubert said, admitting that he has not read the books himself.

“It is obvious that our Education for All (EFA) changes that we adopted in Katy (ISD) have caused collateral damage, and we see that. There is a possibility that we need to rethink our policies and make sure that we are denying our AP students the opportunity to read the books they need to advance in their studies,” said Trustee Theresa Wagaman.

“I don’t think the damage is caused by politics. I think we need to sit down and look at the process and hire more librarians,” said Trustee Melissa Dungan. “I think there’s still room for improvement.”

The background

At a board meeting on March 19, the board approved several measures to provide greater transparency and faster updates in the review process.

• Staff could add the reason for removing a book to the list on the website.
• Set a specific day each month to update the list.
• Provide a 15-day deadline to submit a book contest entry.
• Add instructions on how to appeal an informal review to the district’s FAQs.

The following 19 books were requested for re-examination at various levels of the district’s review process:

• “Very Blue Eyes” by Toni Morrison
• “Maybe Tomorrow” by Stephen Chbosky
• “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
• “Slaughterhouse 5” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
• “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult
• “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson
• “We are the ants” by Shaun David Hutchinson
• “The Crawdads Song” by Delia Owens
• “Beloved” by Toni Morrison
• “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi
• “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
• “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer
• “Girl in Translation” by Jean Kwok
• “I am not your perfect Mexican daughter” by Erika L. Sanchez
• “Salvage the Bones” by Jasmine Ward
• “Sold” by Patricia McCormick
• “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
• “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini
• “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead

What’s next

There is no timeline or plan for the Board to discuss changes to the EFA Guidelines.