The School Board of Alachua County approved the first reading of an amendment to its policy on book challenges during a regular meeting on Tuesday. 

The new amendment prohibits residents who are not the parent or guardian of a student with access to school district materials from objecting to more than one material per month. 

The amendment also clarifies the review process and removes the requirement for a hearing officer, and notes that the school board’s decision, based on the recommendation of a hearing committee, will be final. 

Board members asked on Tuesday to add into the policy the board’s ability to send a previous decision back for reconsideration if state statute should change. 

Board Member Tina Certain also repeated a request for staff to remove a provision in the policy that allows book challengers to designate a representative. Board members have noted before that acting as a representative could allow someone to dodge around the one objection per month limit. 

The challenge process became a priority in fall 2023 after a new state law made it easier for parents and citizens to challenge library materials. By the end of the year, a dozen books had been challenged, and the board finalized a policy early in the spring semester, which the board began amending this summer.  

The public hearing for the policy amendment is set for 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2025. 

The school board also refused to fire an employee, who was recommended for termination. Certain made the motion to fire the employee, as staff had recommended, but the motion failed for lack of a second. 

Staff also recommended suspending another employee without pay, pending termination proceedings, which the board approved 4-1, with Board Member Leanetta McNealy in dissent. 

A recommendation for the termination of a third employee was approved unanimously, though Certain brought up a concern that the employee stopped coming to work as far back as March. She said even if an employee is not being paid during the time they are gone, having them on the books opens up a risk of fraud, because someone could write them a check as long as they have an employee number. 

“This would be an area that we have room for improvement,” interim superintendent Kamela Patton told the board. “I’ve been talking with staff about creating standard operating procedures, and this would be an example… it shouldn’t take that long for job abandonment, so this will be one that we’ll write as a standard operating procedure.”