In a split vote, the Upper Adams School Board approved a new library policy that could lead to books being removed from shelves.
The board on Tuesday voted 6-3 to adopt the new version of Policy 109.1, “Selection of Materials for Libraries/Media Centers.” Susan Crouse, Kay Hollabaugh and Jim Lady voted against the policy update.
The updated policy will go into effect at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.
The vote came nearly a year after board member Loren Lustig introduced proposed changes to the policy that sparked a strong response from the community. In the time since, parents, staff, alumni, and students spoke against the proposal in several public meetings. Board meetings that were usually held in the small meeting room were often moved to the auditorium to accommodate crowd size.
What’s changed
Under the updated policy, the district “will avoid library materials with sexually explicit content” and/or “excessive profanity.” It also states that materials that “disparage religious beliefs” will be avoided.
Regarding materials with profanity and sexual content, a librarian “may request an exception if the librarian believes that the book’s overall quality warrants it,” the new policy reads.
Such exceptions would need approval from the superintendent and school principal. The new policy states exceptions will be “infrequent, not common.”
In addition, the school board will be informed at least once a semester of any library materials that were granted an exception. Written justification for the exception will be kept on file as long as the library material remains in the district.
Any materials with sexually explicit content and/or excessive profanity that are granted an exception will be kept in an area that is not accessible to students, the policy states.
A new “parental control” clause in the policy offers parents an “opt-in” form that must be signed if they wish to give their student permission to access library materials with excessive profanity and/or sexually explicit content.
Prior to this update, the district already had a system in place to evaluate and denote which materials contained mature content. Librarian Nicole Starner told the board in April that librarians can set up an alert on a student’s account that pops up when they try to check out a book.
The new policy ensures that parents can discover what books their students are checking out. The policy states library records of a minor student will not be kept confidential from their parents/guardians, except in cases where doing so is required by law.
In addition, under a new subsection titled, “Matters of Public Concern,” the policy states that library materials should cover “both sides” of issues fairly.
“The district has a legitimate interest in students understanding current events and matters of public concern, at a level appropriate to the age of the students. When a district media center includes materials that cover a matter of public concern, the media center will be responsible to provide, in an unbiased fashion, materials covering both sides of the issue fairly,” the updated policy reads.
The new policy expands upon the process to challenge library materials. The district “encourages” taxpayers, district residents, and parents and guardians of students to bring concerns about library materials to the district in writing, according to the updated policy.
Interim Superintendent Don Bell said a complainant’s identity would remain confidential.
If library material is challenged, a material review committee will be formed to consider the complaint. The committee will be comprised of the building principal and school librarian and, if the material in question was to be used for a class, the committee will also include at least one language arts teacher and one teacher from the grade level or curriculum area in which the material is used.
The committee will give their recommendation to the superintendent, who will share the recommendations with the board. The challenged library material’s fate would lie with the school board, which would make its decision at the next regularly scheduled public meeting.
Previously, the policy stated that a complaint would be reviewed by a materials review committee consisting of the principal, librarian(s), and two or three members of the teaching staff, including one from language arts and one from the curriculum area or grade level in which the material is being used.
No more than three challenges will be processed in one year, the updated policy states, and an individual is limited to one challenge per year.
Former Superintendent Wesley Doll in April said the district never received any written complaints challenging books in his 16 years there.
Reactions to policy
Before the vote Tuesday, Lady criticized his fellow board members for what he described as failing to listen to the concerns of the community.
“I do believe that quite a few board members have sat here with total disregard for our community,” he said. “We’ve sat here for almost a year listening to our community tell us that they didn’t want this.”
Lady said the board should have never started down this road.
“This board has wasted a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of money, a lot of volunteer time by teachers, our librarian, for the last year, again, trying to fix something that was not broke,” he said.
One resident made a final plea for the board to reconsider.
“Many have spoken before the board, and signatures have been collected to show that we, the people, do not approve this policy rewrite, but to no avail,” district resident and former employee Leslie Callahan said. “As board members, I feel it is your duty to listen to the public and vote for what the public wants, not what you want. Even if you disagree with public opinion, your duty is to vote the way of the majority of the people.”
Callahan said Policy 109.1 served the district well before changes were proposed.
“It is a fine policy as originally written, and it is doing the job it was intended to do,” she said. “It is keeping indecent books out of the students’ hands. Let’s stop all this nonsense right now.”
What’s next
The new policy is set to go into effect next school year.
The district will begin to review library materials to ensure they are in compliance, Bell wrote in an email.
Librarians will use a number of resources to evaluate books, according to Bell.
These sources include but are not limited to the following: Common Sense Media, Novelist Plus, BookLooks, TeachingBooks.net, Booklist Online, LibraryThing & Goodreads, Publisher’s Website, Scholastic, WorldCat, TitleWave, Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD), Publisher’s Weekly, Library of Congress Catalog, Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), Epic!, BookBrowse, BiblioCommons, NetGalley, and Fantastic Fiction.
“The librarian will cross-reference the information that is available with these sources with the current book collection in the Learning Commons and review our collection, as needed. If upon review the librarian finds justification per the guidelines in Policy 109.1 to remove accessibility to any of those books for students, they will do so,” or seek exceptions through the board, Bell said.
The transition will take time, Bell said, and he does not expect titles to come off the shelves in large droves.
“In my short time in the district, my review of the specific changes/additions made to Policy 109.1 and the possible books that might be affected, I wouldn’t anticipate any wholesale or noticeable bare shel[f] changes in the district libraries. I would anticipate a very methodical process to be completed on a continual basis by the librarians,” Bell wrote.
In other business Tuesday, the board:
Voted 8-1 to enter into a three-year contract with collections agency JP Harris to attempt to recover some of the outstanding lunch debt families owe to the district. Hollabaugh voted against the decision. The agency will start by pursuing the top 10 individuals who owe the greatest amount to Upper Adams.
Celebrated the success of high school art and shop students who designed and built the apple mural at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
Celebrated the afterschool running and wellness program, Sole Sisters. Approximately 60 girls from fourth to sixth grade participated in the program’s 19th year at Upper Adams.
Learned the intermediate school fundraised more than $4,200 through the Jump Rope For Heart/Kids Heart Challenge as of Tuesday, which benefits the American Heart Association. Upper Adams has participated in this event for more than 25 years.
Mary Grace Kauffman, freelance reporter, worked six years as a full-time reporter for newspapers in Pennsylvania and Maryland. She has covered topics including business, crime, education, government and features. Mary Grace has a bachelor's degree in communication/journalism from Shippensburg University. She resides in Adams County.