When: Warwick school board meeting, Jan. 21.
What happened: The board voted unanimously to eliminate the library materials review committee it created in November 2022.
Background: There was no discussion on disbanding the committee on Jan. 21. At the Dec. 3 school board meeting, Vice President Scott Landis had proposed the committee be eliminated. At the time, Landis said the committee was established before the adoption of the current library policy. He said the committee had provided a valuable service in reviewing hundreds of books, but it required substantial time and effort on the part of committee members.
Quotable: “The new library policy establishes specific standards and guidelines for the selection of library materials and places the initial and primary responsibility for their selection on our librarians where many of us feel it rightly belongs,” Landis said in December.
More: The committee included 25 members representing librarians, teachers, staff, students and community members.
Public comment: Prior to the decision to disband the committee, resident Allen Correll said the school district should be carefully monitoring inappropriate materials in its libraries. He asked that books be removed from the high school library that contain excessive sexuality, graphic profanity and graphic violence.
Superintendent search: The board held executive sessions on Jan. 14 and 21 having to do with the superintendent search, President Emily Zimmerman said. Zimmerman said the meetings were in compliance with the Sunshine Act.
Quotable: “The School Board met in executive sessions on January 14 and 21 to narrow the field of candidates to three finalists and to determine the questions and information that it would like to obtain from those finalists in order to make a final selection, which will be voted on publicly,” Zimmerman said by email Jan. 28. “The Sunshine Act expressly authorizes executive sessions ‘to discuss any matter involving’ the selection of a prospective employee — thus, these executive sessions were held in full compliance with the law.”
Media law response: Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said Zimmerman’s description didn’t provide enough information to determine whether the meetings were in compliance with the Sunshine Law.
Quotable: “It’s not clear to me whether the discussions involved generally applicable questions that would be posed to all candidates, or questions geared to one applicant only. Discussions about specific candidates can be held during a personnel executive session, but generally applicable personnel subjects are off limits,” Melewsky said. “The personnel executive session is about individuals, not generally applicable policies, procedures, funding, search criteria, etc. It is also worth noting that the board president’s selective reliance on statutory language illustrates a misunderstanding of the law. Taking statutory phrases out of context and without regard for the remainder of the law leads to misapplication and misunderstanding.”
