The Williamson County School Board met for its regular monthly meeting on Monday, June 19th at 6:30pm.
Eric Welch was absent from the meeting (on vacation, still actively attacking taxpayers via email and social media).
The meeting lasted around 2 hours.
Public Comment
15 community members signed up to speak.
9 spoke in favor of keeping the obscene books in the WCS libraries and 6 spoke against. Most of those who spoke in favor of keeping the books had One Willco shirts and quoted bible verses and stories out to context to support their cause. They were even able to get a few students and recent grads to speak. In the end, the board members already know how they are going to vote, but it’s still good to sign up to speak and make them feel the pressure for the upcoming elections.
Superintendent’s Contract Renewal
This is an annual agenda item. Without much discussion, the board voted unanimously to renew Mr. Golden’s contract for a 4th year. As a result, it now doesn’t expire until June of 2027. Salary is $270,504 plus a car, cellphone, and other benefits.
Unfinished Business
Reconsideration Committee’s recommendation to keep these books in the library. Speak, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, Where the Crawdads Sing and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
One item to note was the multiple exchanges between the boards external legal counsel (a fee that we pay in addition to our internal counsel who was in attendance) with regard to parliamentary procedure. Since the board chair was aware of how contentious these items were, she apparently worked with counsel ahead of time to make it very clear how the flow of discussion and voting would work on these. However, both Eliot Mitchell and Rick Wimberly argued with him as he was requesting that they go through each book separately. Discussing them individually would have forced them to answer the questions from the attorney who read directly from the Age Appropriate Materials act. He asked the board if the materials in each book was age appropriate and within the educational mission of the school.
Isn’t it interesting that the speakers who spoke in favor of keeping these books kept threatening lawsuits if the board voted to remove them yet at the same time, the board refuses to listen to the legal advice of the very external counsel that they hired? He was simply trying to follow the guidelines that he quoted directly from the age appropriate materials act.
Jennifer Aprea made the motion to keep these books in the library without restriction, it was seconded by Mr. Mitchell. Jay Galbreath, Eliot Mitchell and KC Haugh all mentioned that the books absolutely contained objectionable content (meaning the book is in violation of state law) but that it should be up to the parents to opt their children out of reading them. In addition, Mr. Mitchell mentioned that “when you sign your children up to attend Williamson County schools, you’ve opted in to their full library selection and curriculum”. Similar to a statement that was made by the prior member from district 4 that told us “our parental rights stop at the classroom door”.
When the vote was taken, Dan Cash and Donna Clements voted to remove the books while Angela Durham, Eliot Mitchell, Jennifer Aprea, Jay Galbreath, Sheila Cleveland, Rick Wimberly, KC Haugh and Drason Beasley all voted to keep them. Josh Brown abstained from voting.
It seems to me that those who voted in favor of keeping these books in the library are attempting to normalize rape and sexual abuse instead of working to protect our students.
New Business
Approval of 2023-2028 Strategic Plan
Added an objective to review school start times.
Added a statement regarding a livable wage and workforce housing.
This passed unanimously.
There is no scheduled meetings in July.
Please put the August meeting on your calendar as we expect the red flag resolution by Eric Welch will be on the agenda. Monday, August 21st at 6:30pm.
