Diana Breazeale (top) of Ozark and Echo Alexzander (bottom) of Highlandville were recently elected to the Christian County Library Board of Trustees.
The board consists of five members, one from each library district: Ozark, Nixa, Clever, Highlandville and Sparta. Positions are two-year terms and are staggered. Ozark and Highlandville were up for election this year.
Past system of library board selection hit a snag!
Until now, the library director recommended board members and the county commission approved them without getting involved. But that didn’t set well with Lynn Morris, elected eastern commissioner in 2020 and Presiding Commissioner in 2022. Morris found out the commission has authority to appoint and approve library board members regardless of the library director’s opinions.
Library hottest topic at public meetings
Morris was wise in doing so. The library board had been “rubber stamped” by the previous county commission and the library director was filling board positions with people of like mind. (Which means they were more liberal and “woke” in their thinking than what the vast majority of citizens wanted!)
Morris started hosting town hall meetings in January to get a read on the public’s interest in issues they felt worthy of discussion. Number one, time and again, no matter what part of the county the meeting, was the outcry against indecent and sexually explicit books in school and public libraries being promoted to children.
Pastors, parents and private citizens alike were alarmed by the books. School libraries became a hotbed of controversy as concerned parent groups waged war against the promotion and continued ordering of sexually explicit books, some even in the category of pornography, under the guise of education.
For more about the controversy, read the article here.
Library board applicants get big turnout
As a result of the controversy and interest on the part of the public and Lynn Morris, the library board finally had a big turnout for it’s next election recently.
“We had 23 applicants which resulted in a total of 19 interviews, because four were from areas outside the eligible districts (Ozark and Highlandville). We kept the remaining 4 on file to consider when their districts have open seats,” Morris said.
Five applicants came from Highlandville; 14 from Ozark. All 19 were individually interviewed by each of the three county commissioners. None of the commissioners communicated about the interviews to remain objective.
“All three of us chose the same top one or two people independently,” Morris told the CCT. “I was pleased with that!”
Morris said the people from each district need to have input on their library board. The current president of the library board wasn’t happy. He wanted the position but didn’t get it due to the new procedure.
A local pastor shared a pamphlet of photocopies of sexually explicit book content being made available to children with each current library board member recently. “Would you want your children or grandchildren seeing this?”
None of the five board members wanted to answer. Finally, two of them admitted that no, they wouldn’t want their kids seeing that filth.
This is the problem in many library systems. Gay, queer, and transgender activism is rampant in literature for kids and young adults these days. Our community is, for now, standing strong against it, despite the efforts of woke, liberal library people putting such things in prominent displays on library shelves.
Each manager of each library uses his or her own discretion on library displays. Renee Brumett is the current library executive director in Christian County.
Sparta Pastor gets involved in library smut case
A Queer’s Bible was being promoted at the Sparta Library. A local pastor got wind of it and raised a ruckus. Foks, we need to be watchful! Predators are everywhere!
We need to watch out for our county!
As citizens, we may have a better representation on our library board currently. The two good ones elected can influence one of the three other current board members to stand up for the innocence of children. But be watchful… directors such as Brumett have not proven “family friendly” and she may try to influence the board.
Time will tell, Christian County.
The Christian County Library Board meets at 6 p.m. every 4th Tuesday of each month. The location is announced on their website listed below a week prior to the meeting. The next meeting is August 22. Public comments are submitted 3 business days prior to be approved. Go to the library web page to apply to be on the lilst to make public comments (3 minutes) prior to the meeting. Ten slots available.
Board of Trustees 417-724-6100
Website: https://christiancountylibrary.org/library/trustees
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