Two public-comment items at the July 30 Pomona Unified board meeting pressed the district on curriculum materials and teacher training.

Max Herr, a resident, asked trustees to reconsider a line-item (identified in his remarks as agenda item 7.67) that would fund teacher training for the DBQ (Document-Based Questions) project. Herr said he opposes the DBQ training—he quoted sample DBQ prompts and argued teachers selecting primary and secondary sources could bias student outcomes. He asked the board to "re-evaluate" the proposed $23,000 expenditure and said the district should spend money on other instructional needs.

Separately, a speaker who identified herself as Ms. Pond asked the board to place an item on a future agenda to remove what she described as "pervasively vulgar" books from Pomona USD libraries and classrooms. She defined that term as materials she said contain frequent, explicit or offensive language that, in her view, dominates a work’s content. Pond cited the U.S. Supreme Court case Board of Education v. Pico (1982) to say schools have a role in removing materials they judge educationally unsuitable. She said, based on her review, at least one such title appears in 32 schools; she asked the board to investigate and agendize the matter.

What the board did: Trustees received the public comments during the oral-communications period; no board action or formal referral was recorded on either request during the meeting.

Context and caveats: Commenters expressed opinions and cited examples. The district did not present curricular materials or the DBQ training contract in the meeting discussion, and trustees did not vote to approve or reject the $23,000 item during this session. The board did not confirm the commenter’s counts or identify specific titles at this meeting.

Taper: Speakers asked the board to agendize formal reviews; trustees may consider these requests at future meetings or through staff follow-up.