For more than two decades, Great Falls Public Schools has implemented a team of administrators, teachers, library staff, and community members to oversee their library material review committee.
“We wanted to have wide representation. So there's committee member representation and there's staff representation from all of our levels,” says Jackie Mainwaring, director of Student Achievement.
“[Mainwaring] did a great job of assembling the committee, getting the sample size from what we need. As far as elementary level, high school level, you know, so we can get all of the grades, K-12, everybody's kind of represented,” says GFPD board trustee Marlee Sunchild.
In November 2022, GFPS implemented a new policy to change the format by which the committee is selected. That change will come in the form of an annual application process held each spring.
The newest appointees were named during the school board’s August 21st meeting.
“Recently, our librarians went through their regular curriculum review process and noted that it had been a while since it had been updated. We looked at the Montana School Boards Association sample policies, and we looked at other districts in our state, see what they're doing. And so then we made it ours and adopted that policy last fall,” explained Mainwaring.
According to board policy, the library committee must be comprised of three librarians from each level of schooling, four community members, two teachers who teach the materials from each schooling level, and one administrator.
As far as the review of the materials, they are handled on a case by case basis from school to school.
Within the last calendar year, Jackie Mainwaring says no complaints have been filed regarding these materials.
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