Mentor Board of Education approves ‘two-tier’ book lending policy

MENTOR, Ohio — For several years, News 5 has been following a hot topic among Mentor Public School families. Some families and community members are concerned about the materials available for children to check out and read.

Mentor School Board decides to keep controversial books on school shelves

Now the Mentor Public Schools Board of Education has voted 5-0 to approve a new policy that gives parents the power. Lyndsie Wall, mother of a Ridge Elementary School student, is looking forward to an email telling her which books her second- and fourth-grade sons are checking out from the library.

“It gives parents the opportunity to know, ‘Hey, this book, we have this one issue in our lives right now and this could actually be a trigger for my child. So no, I don’t want this book.’ It’s not just about one issue,” Wall said.

Education Committee Chair Maggie Cook explains how it works: “Parents receive an email every time their child borrows a book from the library.”

Parents of students in preschool through high school will be notified. Cook said the program goes even further.

“The second level is for parents who want more restricted access. If you choose the restricted access system, your child will get an email and the book they want to select will be held in our library. They will come home with a permission slip and when they come back with a signed permission slip, they can take the book home,” Cook said.

Board members Rose Ioppolo and Annie Payne agree on the two-tier system, but members are “deeply disappointed” that the board has eliminated its “sexual content policy,” which takes effect in 2023, and the ability for parishioners to donate books.

Controversial book remains in Mentor Public Schools

The members sent this joint statement on Friday afternoon:

This statement represents the views of Rose Ioppolo and Annie Payne only and does not reflect the position of the entire Mentor Board of Education.

“The school board’s recent decision (3-2) to eliminate the sexual content and book donation policies is deeply disappointing. Last year, the council had unanimously approved a policy proposed by Ms. Payne that would notify parents if their child checked out a book with sexual content or explicit material. The council has now revoked that policy in a 3-2 vote, as well as the ability for community members to donate books. This effectively prevents stakeholders, including financial supporters of the district, from providing valuable input and resources. The superintendent made this recommendation after acknowledging the likelihood that the left-leaning council majority would only approve books that were left-leaning and reject books that were right-leaning.”

After the policy that labeled books with explicit sexual content was lifted, we requested an additional safeguard because many parents are unaware that our libraries contain such material. Specifically, we proposed adding a disclaimer that parents would sign to inform themselves that their child may be exposed to such books and to acknowledge their responsibility to review each title. At least three board members, as well as the school’s principal, expressed support for adding this disclaimer to the administrative policy.

Current policy requires balance within our book collection. Materials should not lean politically in any one direction. The Board and Superintendent have recognized the need for balance and have promised to correct this lack of consistency with the policy.

We are pleased that the school board has unanimously supported a new two-tier system that gives parents the opportunity to either approve or reject books before they are checked out. It also gives parents the opportunity to be informed of all book titles their child can check out from the media center. This policy change, which was included in the new policy at our request (5-0) rather than being included in the less secure administrative policies, ensures that parents have a clear voice.

Ioppolo made the following comment at Thursday’s meeting: “I think that allowing donation opportunities creates accountability, transparency and trust in the community, which is something we desperately need.”

Cook said the two-tier system goes far beyond the “sexual content guidelines” and allows every parent to decide for themselves what kind of material their child is exposed to.

“We have 34,000 books in our library. It’s really not feasible to go through every book and give specific instructions for each one, so we leave that up to the parents,” Cook said.

Some community members say more needs to be done. “If we continue to retain this harmful material, the next levy will fail. We will work to make that happen,” said taxpayer Jacqueline McCormick.

Wall said she was ready to end the conversation, settle the dust and get her boys back in the classroom. “Let’s maybe talk about some of the real issues in our school district, like bullying and class sizes and things like that, test scores. We need to make sure that every child is getting the conditions they need to be successful in school.”