The Williamson County Board of Education voted Monday to ban three books and restrict access to two others at Monday’s school board meeting, following months of debate between parents and educators about K-12 book bans throughout the state.

The Williamson County Schools (WCS) Board of Education unanimously approved new plans proposed Monday by Superintendent Jason Golden to address budget concerns relating to teacher pay and bullying within the district.

The U.S. Department of Education has named six Tennessee schools as National Blue Ribbon Schools this year including Miller Perry Elementary School in Kingsport, Glenwood Elementary School in Oak Ridge, Early College High School in Nashville, Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville, Spanish Immersion at Barksdale in Clarksville, and Jordan Elementary School in Brentwood.

Williamson County Schools says misinformation on social media may be unnecessarily alarming parents.

Multiple Williamson County Schools students and community members continued to urge the Williamson County Board of Education to support raises for arts teachers at Monday’s meeting.

Last Thursday Republican State House District 65 candidate Brian Beathard took to his Facebook page to attack what may be Governor Bill Lee’s biggest education accomplishment.In 2022 lawmakers passed the Governor’s Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) that invested a billion dollars into K-12 education and fundamentally changed the formula the state uses to fund schools.  Beathard told his supporters that TISA is reducing the amount of money schools in Williamson County are receiving.

The arts can be a place where students find community and acceptance as they navigate through their school years.Some students in Williamson County worry the art teachers that help provide that community aren’t adequately valued by their district. Monday night more than half a dozen students and parents told Williamson County Board of Education members those teachers deserve to be paid more.Fairview High School junior Rosalie Mobley was among them. Mobley has been active in theater since the fifth-grade and she told board members it’s given her opportunities few people get.

A heated debate at recent Williamson County School Board meetings will be moving to the Tennessee General Assembly next year.Representative Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, is sponsoring legislation to prohibit traditional public and public charter schools from displaying any flag in the classroom that isn’t the official United States flag or the official state flag of Tennessee. This legislation would effectively ban all pride flags in public schools.Representative Bulso told the Tennessean he was encouraged to file the bill by parents in his county and a school board member who were concerned about “political flags.”

Williamson County students say they faced intimidation following last month’s discussion on whether pride flags should be allowed in classrooms.Amy Duncan with LQBTQIA+ group Wilco Iris told board members at Monday’s meeting that some members of the crowd opposing the flags purposely intimidated students after the previous meeting.Duncan says she came to the board meeting to speak on behalf of those students who were advised not to attend the meeting by the adult volunteers at Wilco Iris who also feel the students’ safety is in danger.

The most controversial issue at Monday’s Williamson County School Board meeting wasn’t even on the agenda.Nearly three dozen parents and students came to the meeting to express their opinions on whether pride flags should be allowed in district classrooms.The issue has gained attention across the country in recent years and the Williamson Herald reported the local Moms for Liberty chapter encouraged parents come to Monday’s meeting and urge the school board to adopt a policy that only allow the state and American flags in public schools.

As August gets closer, Tennessee school districts are preparing for the new school year by providing families with the information and assistance they need to start that first day on the right track.Several of the state’s largest districts are offering resources online to families.

Members of the Williamson County Schools Board of Education voted 8 to 2 to keep five challenged books on the shelves Monday night.Those books include Speak, Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, Where the Crawdads Sing, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The books contain a common theme of the main characters being outcasts based on their own personal experiences and earlier this year, a district committee recommended against removing them from Williamson County School libraries.“A book that, in my opinion, makes a teenager kind of dive into and recognize that everybody is different and people at based upon their own personal experiences is a valuable piece of literature that’s a whole lot deeper than just the subtext or the specific sexual content, or bullying content, or drug content that’s being called out here,” said board member Eliot Mitchell.

Williamson County Schools Board of Education voted to give parents two notifications when there’s a request to remove a book from a school library.Last April, the board passed the first reading of a library materials policy that notifies parents after the board votes on  a challenged book.At last week’s meeting, board member Sheila Cleveland proposed updating the proposed policy to provide parents with an earlier notification.  Under Cleveland’s proposal, the district would provide parents an initial notification when the review committee makes its recommendation on challenged books.

School districts across the state should learn this week what students could be held back under the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law.The Tennessee Department of Education expects to be able to send that information to districts by May 19. Districts will then check to see if any of those students meet exemptions to the new law and then inform parents.