Conroe ISD Trustees Consider Helping Parents Access Upper-Level Removed Books

Nearly two months after Conroe ISD board members declined to reverse the removal of 19 titles from classroom library shelves, trustees reevaluated the district’s instructional and library materials policies and procedures on Tuesday night.

Trustee Theresa Wagaman initially proposed revisiting these guidelines at June’s board meeting following a public hearing where several community members attempted to make a case for the board to reinstate these texts.

Wagaman specified on Tuesday that she wanted the board to establish a procedure to help parents obtain banned or removed books that are not available on campus or in classroom libraries, particularly for those who have children in Advanced Placement or college-level courses.

These courses offer supplemental or extra reading to prepare for the AP test. Superintendent Dr. Curtis Null clarified in response to trustee Melissa Dungan’s concerns that instructors would not teach these books. The board would only provide a way for parents to access any of the roughly 30 titles on the list.

Null recommended several procedural ways the board could implement this practice, such as having a community member donate an Amazon gift card to a student, having a student go to the Montgomery County Library or using a text from a former student.

“That’s a bit odd, right? That we would have a policy that would review these books, but then we would contact the community to provide the books?” Trustee Stacey Chase said. “Either they shouldn’t be there, or they should. Why are we making it so difficult for our students and our families to access the materials they need to be prepared for the test they want to do?”

Wagaman said some of it was out of the trustees’ hands and up to legislative policies, which were an “absolute overreach.” Chase took issue with the limitations of the proposed changes, saying it was “not just the access” but about the appropriate use of these materials in these higher-level courses.

“We can’t pretend that just having access to a book is the same thing as being able to be instructed with it,” Chase said. “It’s not the same thing. Otherwise, when kids showed up for their science class, you’d hand a biology book to them and say good luck.”

Chase piggy-backed off Wagaman’s proposal to suggest changes to the district’s instructional and library materials policies. Fellow board members agreed that she would “red-line” or write her recommended revisions with Conroe ISD General Counsel Carrie Galatas’s assistance and then submit them to the board for consideration.

Theresa Neman, an AP English teacher who led the charge in filing the complaints to try to put the 19 shelves back on classroom library shelves, encouraged the district to modify its policies to curb removals during public comment.

“For years, we managed to teach, react, and treat our families reasonably. If a parent objected to the book, the parent, teacher and school worked to find an alternative,” Neman said. “But in the last two years, unreasonableness took over the minor minor minorities.”

Neman emphasized that only about 20 people—six of whom emailed lists of books to board members but have no children in the district—took advantage of the stricter policies compared to most students and families who didn’t have an issue with libraries or classroom collections. 

“Please don’t continue to limit the rights of our students because a handful of individuals cannot stand that our values might not be their exact values,” she said. “Please return our book policies and our district back to reasonableness.”

Chase did not provide exact details about what would be adjusted in her proposed revisions to the library and instructional materials policies.

However, Chase has criticized how far-reaching both policies go, particularly when it comes to removing classic texts and those regularly included on the AP Exam. Fellow trustees who support changes to the guidelines have also voiced their concerns.

Trustee Datren Williams reiterated prior statements on Tuesday regarding the “inherently racist” nature of the policies that are “overwhelmingly” subjective and target books by authors of color and that feature LGBTQ content.

“It’s been huge for me to sit here and listen, knowing that these actual books have never been the issue. That’s just a red herring,” Williams said. “The issue has been folks going to force their agenda on our school district at the expense of our kids and their education, and that’s just where we are.”

Trustee Tiffany Baumann Nelson quickly challenged Williams, referencing an email sent to the district that showed only 8 percent of the books removed were by a minority author.

Williams said Nelson was not accurate at all. In June, Williams reported that at that time, at least 47 percent of titles up for reconsideration by the district were by authors of color or featured LGBTQ content.

Board President Skeeter Hubert and Trustee Misty Odenweller also added to the list of possible changes for Chase to consider. Hubert recommended a mechanism in both policies to revisit the removed but informally challenged books to allow them to be formally reconsidered.

“They’re trying to interpret this, they’ve removed these, and there’s no mechanism to have these books go through a full review. They’re gone,” Hubert said. “That’s where I would like to see this move. Allow books that are not pornographic — they’re sensitive subject matter — rape, and incest — believe it or not, close your eyes if you need to, those things happen.”

“I am for finding a way that those books that have been removed that hit specific subject matter that should be discussed have a way to come back into the school and in the hands of the kids so they can learn, study and understand these things,” he added.

Odenweller reiterated that the district website needed to be updated with the book removals for both library books and instructional materials. She added that the reason why a title was pulled from the shelves needed to be included.

The board is expected to act on updated versions of the district’s policies at its September meeting.