Monica Dean stood before the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD school board on Thursday night and suggested that taxpaying residents should continue to have the opportunity to challenge the language in state-approved curriculum even if they don’t have children in the district.
Dean, who identified herself as the parent of Cy-Fair graduates, was at the forefront of a curriculum debate in May 2024 that resulted in having 13 textbook chapters removed from state-approved textbooks. The initiative was spearheaded by former trustee Natalie Blasingame, who was ousted in a November election by Cleveland Lane Jr.
The removed chapters dealt with vaccines, epidemics, climate change and other topics that a majority of the former board believed were controversial. Opponents of the initiative called it censorship and an effort to limit education.
The nonpartisan school board once had a 6-1 conservative majority; as of November, it now has a 4-3 majority of trustees who refer to themselves as progressive or “pro-public education.”
The board heard from a handful of residents Thursday night about a proposed change to policy that would limit who can provide feedback on textbooks and library materials, and they ultimately tabled the matter.
Current board policy provides that a parent or guardian of a student enrolled in the district, a person employed by the district, or a person residing in the district may submit challenges regarding instructional materials.
The board originally considered removing the term “a person residing in the district” from its policy, which essentially would limit some taxpayers from providing feedback on curriculum. It appeared that just before Thursday’s meeting, some board members were willing to keep the language as it stands.
The progressive candidates who were elected in November — Lane, Kendra Camarena and Lesley Guilmart — joined board president Julie Hinaman in voting to table the item without scheduling a date to revisit it. Todd LeCompte, Justin Ray and Christine Kalmbach, who were part of the board’s previous 6-1 majority, voted against the motion, apparently wanting to keep the policy in its current iteration rather than consider changes.
Camarena, who made the motion to table, said she didn’t feel like the policy, as written, addresses the real reasons people are upset about the current process.
“We need to identify the root causes of those concerns and ensure that policies reflect solutions,” she said.
Board attorney Marney Collins Sims said the current language, allowing all district residents to provide feedback, would stand until the item comes up again. Superintendent Doug Killian said there was no intention to disenfranchise anyone.
“We can keep the policy the way it is,” he said. “It hasn’t done anything operationally to us in terms of overtaxing us or anything like that. I think we can meet everybody’s needs with the current policy.”
Dean said that removing the ability to challenge instructional materials would be seen as an attempt to silence the taxpayers’ voices.
She added that as a member of the district’s School Health Advisory Committee, a community group that reviews instructional content for health, sex ed and nutrition, she makes recommendations about educational materials and should also be able to challenge them. The SHAC has led to stricter parental controls and opt-out options for age-appropriate content.
“All taxpayers have a right to review documents and give their recommendations to the board,” she said.
The district is currently in the process of reviewing new textbook materials for the 2027-28 school year, including English, government, history, math, chemistry and biology. The materials up for consideration will be made available online for “parent and community review” on January 16, January 20 and January 21, the district advertised earlier this week.
Jen Chenette, the mother of a Cy-Fair ISD graduate, said adults at the state and local levels have been pushing for chapters of the late Charlie Kirk’s conservative Christian Turning Point USA on every campus and questioned whether those same people would be providing input on instructional materials.
“I think that’s called indoctrination,” she said. “Look at the list of new textbooks. I can already see which ones will have a laser focus on them. AP World History, because people want to whitewash history. AP Art History: watch out for Michaelangelo’s David; it could scar some students. AP Biology, because evolution is a really scary concept.”
She added that the trustees who are pushing back against the proposed policy change “had no problem with the board’s ultimate authority for approving curriculum when they were the majority.”
Chenette also brought up a discussion held at a board workshop earlier in the week in which trustee LeCompte said he was contacted by a constituent who was worried about how new library materials are reviewed and selected.
“Parents have always had control over library materials, and they can even opt their child out of the library completely,” Chenette said. “The faux outrage machine is up and running again at full speed. It’s clear that outside puppeteers are still pulling the strings. The community will be paying attention to that.”
Bryan Henry, founder of Cypress Families for Public Schools, said those commenting on instructional materials should have a “direct and personal stake in the matter, someone like a parent or guardian making the request on behalf of the student.”
“In recent years, CFISD employees have spent countless hours working on unnecessary curriculum revisions due to the influence of those who were pushing an ideological agenda,” he said. “Similarly, reconsiderations are time-consuming and I believe we should protect the finite resources of district employees by ensuring that reconsiderations are made in the interest of students, not activists.”
Mary Ann Jackson, a retired teacher, Republican Party precinct chair and founding board member of public policy advocacy group Texas Truth Movement, said Texas schools don’t just belong to teachers or parents but to a variety of stakeholders.
“It was disturbing to learn that the words ‘district resident’ were being crossed out,” she said. “It was as if being a resident without children in the district was irrelevant to a few to be included in our local policies. Many families pay taxes and will never enroll their children in Cy-Fair schools. Stakeholders who are former CFISD employees still add valuable expertise. We the public who live in these Cy-Fair boundaries help pay for the schools.”
Chenette, however, said the district should trust its administration, librarians and teachers to make decisions about instructional materials.
“It’s not about trusting the process,” she said. “It’s about power. It’s about outside forces trying to control what gets taught in public schools. It’s about the dumbing down of society because stupid people are easier to control.”