Three things to know from Tuesday's Sarasota School Board meeting
The Sarasota County School Board convened Tuesday afternoon to vote on several agenda items, including a charter school renewal, various contracts and other spending.
Here are three things that happened at Tuesday's meeting.
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Foster says Pre-K will stay
During her update, district interim superintendent Allison Foster said the non-exceptional student education pre-kindergarten program will continue despite federal COVID-19 funding drying up in 2024.
"I want to thank the community for sharing public comments at meetings, in person, through email and by phone," Foster said of the decision to continue the program. "We recognize the need for high-quality educational programs for our pre-K learners."
She said she has directed Pre-K director Tracey Cardenas and Chief Financial Officer Bonnie Penner to work with the School Board to address the program's sustainability as funding shifts.
Updates on book challenges
Foster asked Rob Manoogian, the supervisor of the district's instructional materials and library services department, to provide an update about challenged library books in schools.
Manoogian said there are two book challenges currently under review: "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison and "Looking for Alaska" by John Green.
"Lawn Boy" is about a 22-year-old biracial man who is fired from his lawn mowing job, and the novel follows his complex life and his attempts to find a new job, with a commentary on class and race. "Looking for Alaska" is a coming-of-age novel about a boarding school student who deals with a traumatic loss of a friend. The novel was a New York Times bestseller and won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature from the American Library Association.
He said both books were at Riverview High, and committee findings have been sent to the parent who filed the complaint who could then take further action and appeal. District officials and records were not immediately available in reference to the book challenges.
Another book, titled "Choke" by Chuck Palahniuk, was removed from the libraries at Venice and North Port High Schools. Manoogian said the book, which was about a sex-addict con man who works at a colonial reenactment museum, had only been checked out once at one school and never at the other dating back to the beginning of the school's library indexing system in March of 2013.
The book's removal happened without the completion of the established challenged materials process, something which Board Chairwoman Bridget Ziegler defended. She read the memo Manoogian sent all board members about the book, which said the book would not have been appropriate to purchase today and doesn't comply with current legislation.
"After following current vetting guidelines established by the state, this book clearly would not be approved for purchase if it were recommended as a new title," the memo read. "It is not age and grade-level appropriate. It is not suited for students' needs and their ability to comprehend the content."
School charter renewed
The School Board approved a 15-year charter renewal for Sarasota Suncoast Academy. The school, which has received an "A" grade from the state every year except 2014 and 2016, teaches almost 800 students.
The school came before the School Board for charter renewal a year early, which the school's principal Steven Crump said was partly because it wanted to explore building an additional permanent structure to replace portable classrooms.
Board members commended the principal on the highly effective charter school and approved the renewal unanimously.
Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota School Board Meeting Recap: Pre-K, Book bans, charter renewal
