Grants Pass school board debates who approves curriculum, library selections and public review window

At a policy workshop, the Grants Pass School District 7 School Board discussed revisions to draft policy IIA covering core instructional materials, supplemental instructional materials and school library selections, focusing on who has authority to approve materials, how the district’s selection criteria should be applied, and whether the district should publish proposed library purchases for public review before purchase.

The discussion matters because board policy and administrative regulations govern which textbooks and library titles students can access and because recent book challenges have raised community concern about transparency and trust in the district.

Board members and staff reviewed multiple bracketed provisions in the OSBA-drafted policy and debated changes line by line. On core instructional materials the draft retains that the board “retains the authority to approve core instructional materials.” Board members agreed that approval of core materials should remain a board responsibility while supplemental, school library and classroom library materials would be treated separately and generally selected at the building level. The board discussed removing the word “students” from a sentence about participants in the selection process; several members said student involvement has not been a regular part…