Manitowoc school board grapples over sexual content as district’s library services plan remains out of state compliance

MANITOWOC – Manitowoc School Board was unable to reach a consensus on allowing the district's library professionals to move forward in creating a state-required long-term plan for library services development.

The board met June 11 and failed to pass any motion to allow the district's library media team to develop the plan because of differences in opinion over a ban on sexual content.

Lee Thennes, MPSD director of state and federal programs, told the school board he needed the board's approval to move forward with creating the library plan, which would include guidelines around buying books. He said the school district is out of compliance with state statutes by not having a long-range plan filed with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Board member Tony Vlastelica wanted to amend a portion of the library plan proposal's goals to include the words "no grade level shall contain sexually provocative or suggestive content."

"The only thing I was suggesting was to get a little more clarity around age appropriateness and what that means, and that's why I suggested adding that language," Vlastelica said.

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Thennes said Vlastelica's proposal could prohibit literary works such as "Romeo and Juliet," which is commonly taught in high school classes, from being included in the school's collection.

Board member Paul Hansen also said the amendment to the proposal was vague and could be interpreted differently by different groups of people.

Board member Matthew Spaulding said he'd like to see the district's libraries "get rid of all sexual content."

"I'm not sure why there is even a discussion about anything in high school, middle school or elementary about anything regarding sex outside of health class," Spaulding said. "... Why is it so hard to say 'get rid of anything sexual from our libraries'?"

Board member Kerry Trask said the library media team should develop the plan first before the board issues directives.

"I would like the librarians to take a hit at this first, and then for us to approve or disapprove or amend what's been proposed," Trask said. "I think that's the right order. I don't think we should offer directives at this point because it's in their court."

Thennes said he was just looking for approval to move forward with developing the library plan and said the finished product would still be brought to the board for approval.

"We have professionals to do this work, we should allow them to do it," Thennes said. "You've been clear about what you want in those guidelines, and I think our professionals hear you loud and clear."

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The board voted twice on adding an amendment to the library plan proposal to include a ban on sexual content, and both times the vote failed with Hansen, Trask and Keith Shaw voting against the amendment and Vlastelica, Spaulding and Matthew Phipps voting for it. Board president Chris Able was absent.

The board also voted twice on approving the plan proposal as written to allow the library media team to move forward with it, but those votes also failed with Hansen, Trask and Shaw voting for approval and Vlastelica, Spaulding and Phipps voting against it.

Thennes said the proposal will be brought back to the Curriculum Committee, which will then forward the matter back to the school board for another vote.

Without a long-range plan for library services development filed with the state DPI, the school district risks being the subject of a compliance audit or a noncompliance hearing, according to state statutes.

Alisa M. Schafer is a reporter for the Herald Times Reporter in Manitowoc. She can be reached by email at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc school board grapples over sexual content in libraries