Board approves revised District of Innovation plan; administration seeks exemptions for grievance and library statutes
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Summary
Trustees voted 6-0 to approve revisions to the district’s District of Innovation (DOI) plan. The administration requested exemptions intended to preserve the district’s existing grievance processes and to reduce statutory burdens on local library advisory work; several requested Chapter 37 exemptions were removed because law now prohibits them.
The Northwest ISD Board of Trustees on Monday approved a revised District of Innovation plan that, according to administrators, seeks targeted exemptions from recent state statutory changes while removing previously requested discipline-related exemptions that the legislature disallowed.
Administration and the DOI committee recommended four main sets of changes: grievances, library collections and challenges, and a set of proposed exemptions tied to student-discipline provisions that the recent legislative session made unavailable for DOI plans.
On grievances, administrators said new Chapter 26A provisions in the Texas Education Code permit complainants to amend and supplement grievances late in the process and to file complaints up to 90 days after an event. The district asked to remain exempt from those particular procedures so it can continue to use its long-standing, faster local grievance processes, arguing the new statutory timelines and amendment allowances would impede prompt resolution.
On library matters, the administration proposed exemptions from statutes that impose specific membership, meeting and procedural burdens on local school library advisory committees (SLACs) and from statutory requirements that would require the board to approve every library acquisition districtwide. Administrators said those requirements would be impractical for a working board and would duplicate the expertise of district library professionals. The DOI committee recommended keeping local review while relieving the board of micro-level acquisition approvals.
Administrators also sought to remain exempt from a statutory requirement that removes challenged material from all district libraries while a challenge is pending; they said the district’s existing challenge process better accounts for age-appropriate access and would avoid removing titles districtwide when a complaint concerns a specific campus or age group.
Some exemptions the district previously sought under Chapter 37 (student discipline) were removed from the revised plan after the legislature barred DOI-based exemptions for chapter 37 provisions. That included items such as campus behavior coordinator designation, a three-day suspension cap and mandatory disciplinary alternative placements for e-cigarette offenses; administrators removed those items so the plan complies with current law.
The DOI committee and administration presented the proposed revisions; the committee reported unanimous support for the recommended changes. Trustee Cotton moved to approve the revised DOI plan; Dr. Rausch seconded. The board voted 6-0 to adopt the revisions.
Administrators said the revised DOI plan is intended to let the district preserve efficient grievance resolution and allow library professionals and the local SLAC to handle collection decisions in a consultative process, rather than require the board to approve every acquisition or remove materials districtwide during a local challenge.