LSC releases library books list. Anti-‘woke’ school board member says it's a start, wants more

Lafayette schools compiling lists of library materials and grade-level textbooks. But stops short of giving anti-woke, anti-LGBTQ school board member lists of every teachers’ classroom books.

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LSC LIBRARY LISTS RELEASED, ANTI-‘WOKE’ SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER LOOKS FOR MORE

Months after a Lafayette school board member, elected on an anti-“woke” platform, caused a stir by demanding that teachers compile lists of every book in the district’s libraries and all classrooms, LSC has started to meet him partway on his request.

In recent weeks, LSC posted a spreadsheet of more than 128,000 titles – from picture books to classic novels – available in its 11 school libraries.

And the district’s administration started uploading an inventory of textbook curriculum for each of its schools, with elementary and intermediate school lists going up last week for reading and writing curriculum.

Lafayette school board member Chuck Hockema (center) discusses his positions after a school board meeting earlier this year. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

LSC Superintendent Les Huddle said the district will stop short of asking teachers to catalogue every book and other materials in their individual classroom collections – something LSC school board member Chuck Hockema asked weeks after he joined the board after being elected in November 2022.

“We’re comfortable sharing the information and believe that what we have in our schools is appropriate,” Huddle said. “And we feel we’re meeting the request Mr. Hockema made. … And we’ve been able to accomplish that without every teacher having to come up with a list from personal libraries that they may have purchased with their own finances for their classrooms. We’re very comfortable that they’re age-appropriate and they’re topic-appropriate.”

Hockema said he hadn’t gone through the library catalogs, which previously were available in a different format, not directly available through the LSC webpage. But he said it wasn’t everything he’d asked for.

Hockema said he’ll be working to get more, as well as recruiting volunteers to help him do it.