Category: school board

Federal Judge Orders Pennsylvania School Board to Allow Critics to Speak, Blocks Vague Speech Codes

A federal judge has ordered a public school district in Pennsylvania to allow public commenters to criticize school policies and officials by name at school board meetings, saying it is within their constitutional right to do so. The ongoing case was brought in October against the Pennsbury School Board by a group of four parents…


Florida School Board Member Files Criminal Complaint Over Sexually Graphic Book

A Florida school board member has filed a criminal complaint regarding a “disgusting,” sexually graphic book—found to exist in the media centers at three schools in Flagler County—which she believes violates state obscenity laws. Flagler County School Board Member Jill Woolbright said she became aware of the book after seeing a video by a parent…


School Board Memo Reveals Timeline of White House ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Letter

Newly publicized documents revealed more details about how the National School Boards Association (NSBA) communicated with the White House before sending out a letter likening concerned parents to domestic terrorists. In the widely criticized Sept. 29 letter to President Joe Biden, the NSBA characterized disruptions at school board meetings across the nation as “a form…


California School Board Votes to Not ‘Support, Enforce, or Comply’ With Gov. Newsom’s Vaccine Mandate

A public school district in Northern California announced Wednesday it will not be enforcing the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for K–12 schools. In a 5–0 vote, the governing board of the Calaveras Unified School District (CUSD) decided at a Tuesday meeting to not “enforce, support, or comply” with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandate, which would require…


Quebec Religious Symbols Ban Will Apply to English Schools Until Appeal Decided

The Quebec Court of Appeal will not allow the English Montreal School Board to hire teachers who wear religious symbols while an appeal of a lower court decision on Quebec’s secularism law is being decided. The school board had sought to have a Superior Court decision that exempted English-language school boards from the law, which…


South Carolina School Board Group Cuts Ties With National Association After Push From Lawmakers

The South Carolina School Boards Association (SCSBA), facing pressure from Republican lawmakers, has voted to discontinue its membership with the national federation that likened concerned parents to domestic terrorists. The decision comes weeks after the National School Board Association (NSBA) apologized for a widely criticized letter, in which the organization characterized disruptions at school board…


Candidates Opposing Critical Race Theory, COVID-19 Mandates Win Minnesota School Board Races

Minnesota has seen in the latest school board elections a number of wins by candidates opposing critical race theory and COVID-19 restrictions, including in areas that traditionally vote Democrats. In Anoka-Hennepin, Minnesota’s largest school district serving some 38,000 students and 248,000 residents, Matt Audette won by a margin of over 30 percent. The only key…


House Republicans Demand Answers From All 93 US Attorneys on DOJ Memo Targeting Parents

A group of House Republicans are demanding answers from all 93 U.S. attorneys about what steps they have taken since the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo directing them to potentially crack down on parental protests. “We are continuing to investigate the troubling attempts by the Department of Justice and the White House to…


Texas Governor Asks School Board Group to Remove ‘Pornographic’ Content From School Libraries

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday called on the state’s school board organization to remove books that contain “extremely inappropriate” content from school libraries, citing growing outrage among parents. “A growing number of parents of Texas students are becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries,” Abbott…


Tennessee House Passes Partisan School Board Elections Bill

A bill that would introduce party labels into local school board elections is advancing through Tennessee’s state legislature. House Bill 9072, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Scott Cepicky, would allow political parties to nominate candidates for school board membership and school board candidates to campaign as a nominee or representative of a party. Under the…