Respect: Mat-Su schools honor parents, create ways for them to approve books their kids check out

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In stark contrast to Anchorage School District policies, the Mat-Su School District has developed a way for parents to be informed and have the ability to approve of the books their children are checking out of the school libraries.

The Valley district sent notices home on Thursday to parents, explaining the new process, which is something parents can opt-into, but at their own discretion.

“We want to keep you informed about an important update to ensure you have control over your student’s library reading choices in the MSBSD,” the district wrote.

Under Board Policy 6020, the School Board described the role of parents and guardians as “key stakeholders in their children’s education—they are their children’s first and most influential teachers. Parental engagement in the education of children contributes greatly to student achievement and conduct.”

Along with other board policies, the District is providing this new option to parents so that they can be involved in their student’s reading choices.

“If you wish to require parent permission for your student to check out any book from the library, please review the process detailed below (no action needed if you’re not interested in required parent approval). This option is available in ParentVUE and instructions for requiring permission are attached to this letter. If you need support, please contact your student’s school or the IT call center (761-4357) Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM,” the district said.

The process works like this:

  1. Parent checks “yes” in Synergy (online parent access) requiring parent permission before books can be checked out (ParentVUE).
  2. Student selects book(s) at school library.
  3. Student picks up form from librarian and takes the form home to be signed by the parent.
  4. If approved by parents, students will return the form to the librarian.
  5. Student proceeds to check out the book(s).

Some students in the school district come from very conservative Christian homes. In the Mat-Su, for example, several conservative churches include:

Several Baptist congregations, with over 3,600 adherents

One Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, with 138 adherents

Seven Assemblies of God, with 408 adherents

One Bethel Fellowship Mennonite Churches, with 47 adherents

One Catholic Church, with 2,720 adherents

Four Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations, with 1,028 adherents

The complete list of Mat-Su congregations are at this link.

8 COMMENTS

  1. You know what conservative districts across America may begin doing is installing classroom surveillance footage with audio in all classrooms where there would be kids meetings. Where parents could install an App like feature to monitor and watch and hear prerecorded what was spoken to the students, since teachers proving themselves untrustworthy.

    You know what Education and the kind of people who are educators are reminding me of is the state of nursing profession when Florence Nightingale found when she became a nurse. Bad work environments and poor working conditions, poor and poorly trained staff, and not Nursing was honorable profession because of the type of women who worked it they were fat, flumpy, and lazy while the hospitals during Florence’s time were places where the sick for sure died.

  2. You know what conservative districts across America may begin doing is installing classroom surveillance footage with audio in all classrooms where there would be kids meetings. Where parents could install an App like feature to monitor and watch and hear prerecorded what was spoken to the students, since teachers proving themselves untrustworthy.

    You know what Education and the kind of people who are educators are reminded me of is how the state of nursing profession when Florence Nightingale found when she became a nurse: Bad work environments and poor working conditions, poor and poorly trained staff, and Nursing was not an honorable profession because of the type of women who worked it they were fat, flumpy, and lazy while the hospitals during Florence’s time were places where the sick for sure died.

  3. Well, I’m at least glad the Valley has given more parental control on the books their children can have access to at school BUT…where do the Valley schools stand on school staff keeping secrets from the parents with regards to their children’s pronouns??? The book thing pales in comparison to the mental health of their children.

  4. Most school districts offer students free computers for use at home. Guess who has access to all those cameras and microphones for listening and watching what is going on in your homes?

  5. I doubt that there will ever be cameras in the class rooms due to confidentiality. School districts do not allow parents to view the videos pulled from the school buses because of that very thing. If their child for example gets into a fight on the bus with another child and that parent wants to view the video of the fight, they will be denied access because of other students privacy rights.

  6. As I see it only people that have a problem with this policy are likely Groomers. They believe society has a right to corrupt other peoples children. Apparently Anchorage is full of these folks judging by who they elect to school board and assembly seats.

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