A Grants Pass School District 7 school bus drives under a city slogan sign, Thursday, May 18, 2023, in Grants Pass, Ore.
Lindsey Wasson / AP
Several examples show a more conservative-leaning shift in school board decisions in recent months.
With a new school year now underway, Grants Pass School District 7 has been reviewing campus policies. Recent policy discussions reveal a shift to the right on the board.
Four school board members who were endorsed by the county Republican party swept the election back in 2023: Dustin Smith, Chad Dybdahl, Nathan Seable and Joseph Schmidt.
In May, the board adopted a more robust parental rights policy, which says parents have a right to “know what their children are being taught”, review curriculum materials and have access to reading lists, supplemental materials and books in the library, among other things.
The board has also received pushback from the teachers union over its proposed policy on instructional and library materials. The union said it could lead to censorship and book banning.
“The Grants Pass Education Association strongly opposes efforts by the Grants Pass School Board to take decisions about library and classroom materials out of the hands of highly trained experts and instead hand them over to a political committee made up largely of non-professional personnel,” the statement reads, as published in the Grants Pass Daily Courier. “Not only would this decision place an enormous burden on librarians and other educators who are simply trying to do their jobs by requiring bureaucratic approval of all books and supplementary materials used in our classrooms, it would also create the potential for a highly politicized review process that could result in the censorship and banning of library materials.”
Scott Nelson served on the school board from 2019 until 2023 and was chairman for two years. He said as national politics have trickled down to the local level, the board has changed from what it used to be.
“I think that it was less politically motivated. I think many of the members of the board were simply there to try to work with the school district. And that’s not to say that this board isn’t. I just think that they seem to have a greater tilt towards some of the national issues that we’re seeing, and there seems to be a little different agenda. I think in the past, most school board members were not claiming a party affiliation,” he said.
Nowadays, he said, school board races have become more heated with more candidates running, as members of both parties try to gain local control in smaller government roles.
“I do think it’s a little bit more politically motivated, but I don’t think that that’s unique just to Grants Pass,” he said.
The seven current school board members did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment for this story.
While not overtly political, in mid-August the board also discussed a new, stricter dress code policy. The proposed policy would ban tube tops, spaghetti straps and face coverings, among other things.
Hector Santiago, assistant principal at Grants Pass High School, thinks the new dress code rules are reasonable.
“Grants Pass School District’s not trying to be clothes police,” he said. “But it’s important to note that we feel strongly in our campuses it’s not a beach or a party house or the mall, and so there’s a standard that we adhere to as best as we can.”
During that August board meeting, Santiago said the face covering ban was because last school year, students used them to “do something nefarious” and hide their identity.
The student handbook for South Medford High School also does not permit masks. Ashland High School’s parent and student handbook does not mention masks, but says “Hats and other headwear must allow the face to be visible and not interfere with the line of sight to any student or staff.”
Nelson, the former board chair, said reviewing policies is common practice, but the board’s policy discussions seem to have changed in recent years.
“The policies we were reviewing at the time were more general in nature. I guess it does seem like the board is taking a more detailed look at some of the policies and then maybe inserting their view of how those policies should be interpreted or applied,” he said.
The board will meet again on Sept. 10 to discuss more new or revised policies.
Politically divisive topics are not new in Grants Pass School District 7. In 2021, the district fired two employees when they created a video called “I Resolve Movement: Response to Gender Identity Policies.”
In it, they discuss a series of resolutions regarding transgender students’ pronouns, name changes and bathroom access at school that some consider to be transphobic. The employees encouraged viewers to contact political representatives to advocate for their message.
After receiving what the district claimed was nearly 100 complaints, it placed the pair on leave and later fired them for violating district policies. (The board later reversed its decision; one of them is still employed by the district).
The two women sued, claiming their First Amendment right to free speech was violated. In March 2023, the case was dismissed. In June 2024, they took the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where it remains.