PEARLAND, Texas — At a Sept. 9 Pearland Independent School District Board of Trustees meeting, the board voted 7-0 to approve the district’s library materials list while removing roughly 57 titles for further review under the district’s implementation of Senate Bill 13.

Superintendent Doctor Berger told trustees the library list contained more than 1,400 items that were posted for the 30-day public comment period required by law and that the district’s librarians compile the recommended list. Berger asked the board to approve the larger list and allow the administration to pull the smaller set of flagged items for deeper review and a return presentation in October. “I am asking that these 57 items . . . be adjusted from the list and be brought back in October with more information for the board,” Berger said.

Board members said they trust the district’s professional librarians but supported additional information on the flagged titles after internal screening tools and third-party checks highlighted potential concerns. Trustee Carter said she opposed “pulling this based on arbitrary keywords” and recommended using established review resources such as Common Sense Media in addition to the librarians’ professional judgment. Trustee Stuckey said, “Without having read the books, it’s hard to know how those themes are presented in the books,” and supported time for a closer reading and librarian explanation.

The district’s process, Berger said, includes librarian selection, a required 30-day public posting with an online inquiry option, and a challenge process that can remove individual titles if parents or community members follow the established review steps. Berger also said parents can opt individual titles out of their child’s checkout permissions through the Destiny library software; whether parents can opt out by genre remains under review.

Board members and staff described how the flagged titles were identified: the administration ran the posted list through a combination of internal review, library-review databases and AI-assisted keyword screening tied to criteria in Senate Bill 13 and House Bill 900. Trustee Carter and others urged care in relying only on AI flags: several trustees said AI flagged themes that did not appear, on closer inspection, to be present in the books. Trustees asked administration to bring committee- and librarian-sourced summaries for each flagged title when the items return in October.

Trustees moved and approved two related consent actions before the discussion: a motion to approve consent agenda items 1–13 except items 7 and 8 (motion by Trustee Johnson; second by Trustee Stuckey; vote 7-0), and later individual approval of item 7 with clarification (motion by Trustee Scheffler; second by Trustee Carter; vote 7-0). For the library list, Trustee Johnson moved to approve the list “with the exception of the 50 plus books that were provided for further review,” seconded by Trustee Stuckey; the motion carried 7-0.

Berger told the board that 663 visitors viewed the posted list during the 30-day comment window and that no official inquiries had been received in that period. He said the district will ask librarians to provide specific explanations for each flagged title — why it was selected, the intended grade level, and the educational justification — before the October meeting.

Trustees and staff also discussed parent access: Berger said parents receive emails showing books checked out by their children and that the district will research whether Destiny software permits opt-out by genre or only by individual title. Trustees requested that the district make the library-list posting more prominent in district communications and send reminders to families during the school year.

The board’s action does not remove the flagged titles permanently; it pauses approval to allow targeted review. The administration will return with fuller documentation on the flagged items at the Oct. 2025 meeting, at which trustees will again vote on those specific titles.