<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2BXw8R_179ROCvd00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2BXw8R_179ROCvd00" width="1200" height="600" >FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - At its Tuesday regular meeting, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board voted to approve its library policy without amendment, as part of its review of half of Article 6. This review comes as the district migrates its policies onto a platform in line with the Alaska Association of School Boards. Board member Loa Carroll-Hubbard was the sole “no” vote on furthering the section of policy being considered.The district’s library materials policy has recently seen objections from members of the Fairbanks community, with some people claiming school libraries hold materials that are obscene and inappropriate for children. Public testimony preceded the school board’s consideration of the issue, with community members testifying both in favor and against the current library policy.Speaking in support of existing policy, Nicky Eiseman, who served as a school librarian in the district for 20 years, discussed the book Fallen Angels, which was moved from a middle school library to one in a high school when it was determined swearing in the book was unsuitable for a middle school library. “The review and evaluation policy worked,” she said, adding that a new regulation allows for increased parental involvement in their students’ book selection. “I’m glad that this policy has been put in place for parents wishing to limit their own children’s book selection, but does not affect the overall collection development policy,” Eiseman added. Meanwhile, April Smith implored the board to listen to community testimony indicating concerns with the current policy. “I’m just wondering how you can in good conscience group in making a new library policy with a whole bunch of other stuff and just push it through. It’s the same old policy that we’ve had, but our community over and over and over and over has asked you to take a look at the library policy,” she said. Parent Adia Cotter described the process by which parents are able to control what materials their children are able to access at school libraries by flagging certain materials as inappropriate. “You don’t need to know the title of every book or every piece of material that you don’t agree with. You just need to communicate with your librarian what your preferences are for your kid to check things out, and they’ll put a big note on their account. When the kid comes and types in their number, that note pops up first thing, so if you have communicated to your librarian preferences and the kid has something on the desk that is not meeting that, the librarian will work with the kid to make sure that they’re not checking out things that you don’t approve,” Cotter explained. “I am not interested in dictating to others how they should use the library, and I don’t want others to dictate how I or my children use the library,” she added.Testifier Ruben McNeill, on the other hand, suggested the district adopt a policy whereby parents can opt into certain materials rather than out of materials they find inappropriate, arguing the current policy puts a lot of work on the parents.Mentioning a few titles, McNeill argued, “There’s comic pictures of explicit sexual acts in these books that are accessible on the library floors in these libraries, and there’s people on the board and people in the audience that are perfectly happy with kids possibly stumbling across this, and their defense is that ‘I trust the library and the librarians to review and select these books.’” At the meeting, school board member Audra Hull proposed the library policy be put aside and considered at a later time, separate from the rest of the Article 6 considerations, which included other district policies, an idea that was supported by some of the public testimony. This proposal was voted down, which meant the board will be looking at a whole package of policy at once, including that concerning library materials. See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com</div></body>

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FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - At its Tuesday regular meeting, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board voted to approve its library policy without amendment, as part of its review of half of Article 6. This review comes as the district migrates its policies onto a platform in line with the...

Fairbanks school district moves library policy forward without changes

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FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - At its Tuesday regular meeting, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board voted to approve its library policy without a

Fairbanks school district moves library policy forward without changes

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