Reconsideration of Instructional Resources

The District recognizes that it has a responsibility to parents and other community members, as taxpaying citizens, to purchase and retain the best educational materials possible. In the event that a student, parent, staff member, or community member has a concern regarding particular materials or requests removal of particular material from the curriculum or collection, the following reconsideration petition procedure will be followed:

1. The petitioner shall discuss their concern first with the staff member providing the material in question, who shall attempt to resolve the concern.
   
2. If a concern is not resolved after the petitioner’s meeting with the staff member, the petitioner shall submit their petition in writing to the Superintendent.

3. The Superintendent or their designee shall objectively review the challenged material in light of the criteria set forth in this policy manual. The Superintendent or designee is expected to be neutral toward the subject matter of the challenged material and shall not be the person who was responsible for its acquisition. The Superintendent shall decide to either remove or retain the challenged material within 30 days of receiving the petition and shall include their decision in their next report to the Board.

4. The Superintendent’s decision may be appealed to the Board. The Board may set aside a portion of a regular meeting or call a special meeting to review the petition and the Superintendent’s report, and to receive testimony from representatives of the various points of view. The petitioner shall have a right to testify before the Board before the Board makes its decision on the material. The Board shall objectively review the challenged material in light of the criteria set forth in this policy manual, discuss Board member opinions, and take whatever action it deems appropriate. The Board will announce its decision in writing not later than the conclusion of the next regular meeting of the Board. No petitions regarding the same material will be reviewed for one year after the date of the Board’s decision.