Heated public comment focuses on library books and questions about legal-counsel hiring; speakers read passages and criticize procurement

The board's public comment period drew lengthy remarks from community members on two related but distinct issues: challenges to school-library materials and concern over the district's recent legal-counsel hiring process.

Several speakers read passages from books housed in district libraries and urged the board to remove titles they characterized as sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate for school readers. Student speaker Amaya Cleveland described how school librarians helped build her love of reading; multiple adult speakers then read excerpts and argued those texts contained themes they considered unsuitable for K–12 audiences. One commenter read from A Court of Thorns and Roses and cited explicit passages; another read from Melissa. Several callers framed their objections in terms of protecting children and requested policy or catalogue changes.

Separately, multiple public commenters criticized the district's procurement and the hiring of Brad Miller as legal counsel. Bernadette Guthrie said the RFP was posted and closed over major holidays and described the timeline as a"performative exercise designed to produce a predetermined outcome," arguing that compressed timelines limit competition and transparency. She warned that hiring counsel perceived as ideologically aggressive drives polarization and could increase legal scrutiny for the district: "Hiring an attorney known for pushing aggressive ideological agendas... does not reduce risk. It increases scrutiny. It increases polarization, and it increases the likelihood that D20 will continue to land itself in the spotlight," Guthrie said.

Board members acknowledged public concerns and asked staff to review the book-challenge process; Director Waldrop suggested revisiting the book-challenge policy. Superintendent Haber and board leadership did not announce immediate policy changes at the meeting. The board noted that public comment is not usually answered on the spot and indicated items could be taken up on future agendas.