Library staff present 1,7002,000-title procurement list under Senate Bill 13; board to use subcommittee review and Destiny parental controls

Library services staff on Friday presented trustees with the first procurement list required by Senate Bill 13 and described the district's current selection and review practices, the process used to compile the list and options for board review.

Heather Burns, the district's coordinator for early childhood and the library liaison, said the list was compiled by certified librarians across elementary, middle and high schools and uses the district's longstanding collection development policy as the baseline. "I am Heather Burns, and I'm the coordinator of early childhood the liaison part between the librarians and myself," Burns told trustees. She said librarians rely on professional review sources and vendor tools such as Follett to identify appropriate grade levels and to surface professional reviews.

Angie Cooper, lead librarian at Heritage Middle School, described how reviewers flag "mature themes" and then examine context and educational value. "This mature theme is abuse," Cooper said while explaining a sample review, and she added the example book presents neglect and the protagonist's effort to overcome adversity. Cooper and Burns said flagged items are reviewed in context and by multiple professional sources before being recommended for purchase.

Key operational points: - Size and scope: Staff said the current submission included roughly 1,700 new titles (spread across elementary, middle and high schools) and that only new-to-system titles were included; titles already in the catalog (for example, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series) would not be resubmitted for board review. - Professional review sources: Librarians rely on multiple professional reviews (school-journal, SLJ and other reviewer notes) and on Follett's grade-level and review indicators; nonfiction works are less frequently reviewed by trade journals, staff said, so librarians evaluate them directly. - Flagging and targeted review: Staff recommended a focused subcommittee review of titles initially flagged for mature or sensitive content rather than asking the subcommittee to read the entire list. "My thought is rather than review 1,800 titles, the board would probably want to see at least a list, a subset of that list that is all of those that were sensitive or mature content flagged," a trustee said. - Parent partnership and controls: Staff demonstrated the Destiny circulation tools and said the district's parent-partnership feature allows parents to restrict their student's checkout privileges and view checkout records. "So we do have that in place. And that's also one of the requirements in the bill," Burns said.

Next steps and board action: Staff proposed the board appoint a subcommittee to review flagged titles and return recommendations. Staff said they will provide summaries and additional context for any titles the subcommittee requests. The procurement list and associated materials will be posted publicly per statute; Burns said staff will work with Follett and the district's vendor to provide summaries and to break the submission into manageable batches for the board.

Authorities and procedures referenced: Senate Bill 13; East Central ISD collection-development policy; Destiny (Follet) parent-partnership features; vendor Follett professional review data.

Ending: Trustees did not vote on final approvals during the work session. Staff said they would prepare the flagged subset for the board subcommittee and bring the full recommendation to a future meeting for action or placement on consent.