Las Cruces Public Schools will amend book review policies after mishandling complaint

Community members Sarah Smith and Juan Garcia spent the last two months working to overturn a decision by the Las Cruces School District library review committee that kept a controversial LGBTQ+ book on the shelf at Mayfield High School.

Smith and Garcia have argued to the Board that the committee's review of their complaint was flawed. On Jan. 30, the Board finally agreed, voted to disband the review committee and reconsider the complaint due to procedural conflicts in district policy.

Book complaint filed under wrong Las Cruces school district policy 

The district’s counsel Elena Gallegos, during the Jan. 30 meeting, told board members that the wrong policy was used to review Smith and Garcia’s book complaint.

Gallegos, for clarity, presented to the Board both existing policies to highlight which processes the district followed regarding Smith and Garcia’s complaint. One addresses the review of curriculum materials, KEF, while the other addresses the review of elective library materials, KEC.

The book involved in Smith's complaint: Jack of Hearts and Other Parts will stay on the shelf at Mayfield High School

Both policies require official complaints to be filed on the same form. As a result, administrators and the Board were confused which policy to follow. Both policies also have different procedures for how review committees are created and selected.

“It was pretty interesting. I don't think, at best, I could tell nobody knew that the wrong policy was being used until the lawyer presented it. We had just been told to follow that specific policy last August when we filed the complaint,” Smith told the Sun-News.

“I didn't realize there was another policy as well. I thought it was interesting to realize that there are conflicting policies in the district, and that there are so many policies that even the school board members and the administration don't necessarily have a good understanding of.”

She said she did not anticipate this mix-up to be the focus of the meeting and left wondering what other regulations and policies may need revising.

“It kind of, to some degree, raises some questions, makes you wonder what other policies might be either conflicting or maybe don't make sense or policies that we need to know about, that people aren't even aware of,” Smith said.

“The fact that there's two different policies and regulations and only one form (to submit a complaint) makes for a huge amount of confusion.”

Las Cruces School Board, lawyer weigh in on mishandling complaint 

After both policies were presented to the Board, Gallegos acknowledged that implementing them under the current regulations was complex and told the Board it needed clearer procedures moving forward.

“I think it got complicated for everybody and I say genuinely that it was complicated for the complainants who filed their complaint and are now complaining under the KEC policy. I can only imagine that it was complicated for administration,” Gallegos told the Board.

“What's interesting is, even though the complaint clearly was about an elective book and not a curricular book, the complainants by regulation are told under KEC that parents, students, staff and our community members are provided a means to review and or challenge library resources … that regulation refers them over to that [KEF] form."

Gallegos also raised concern about whether the teacher's union had been involved in the review process as required under collective bargaining agreements. She said it too should be aware of any changes to regulations and policies, and the Board agreed.

Upon conclusion of Gallegos’ presentation, board members took up discussion on how to fix the book review policies and regulations for clarity ahead of a potential refile of Smith’s and Garcia’s complaint.

Board member Pamela Cort said that establishing two forms was doable and an immediate solution. She also proposed amending the policies in the future to avoid further confusion.

“As Ms. Gallegos showed us, there's a very different process for selecting those committees, which might have alleviated a lot of what's happening right now,” Cort said. “Clearly, we need to look at a policy review and definitely look at the regulations and make sure that we're aligning.”

Las Cruces School Board orders administration to fix book review regulations

In a unanimous vote, the Board ordered LCPS administration to revise existing regulations for policies KEF and KEC, both used to review instructional and elective library materials.

The Board gave administration until Feb.14, with the chance for an extension, to come up with new regulations that would make book complaints easier to interpret and investigate.

In another unanimous vote, the Board decided that the new regulations would allow Smith’s and Garcia’s August 2023 complaint to be reconsidered.

When asked if she would refile the complaint, Smith told Sun-News it was something her and Garcia “hadn’t decided yet.”

Ernesto Cisneros is a reporting fellow with the UNM/NM Local News Fund program. He covers education for the Sun-News and can be reached at ECisneros@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter at @_ernestcisneros.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Las Cruces Public Schools changes book review policies