CONCERNING BOARD DECISIONS AND ACTIONS

• Extreme book policy (2024-2025) 

• Board member refuses to sign ethics and good governance policy (2023-2025)

• Angel of Greenwood (2023-2025)

• Teachers forced to work without a new contract for months (coming soon)

• Undermining school counselors (coming soon)

• Board dysfunction

We've been tracking meetings regularly since the newest board members took office in December 2023 and reporting the biggest concerns in our email newsletter. Click on a meeting date to read the recaps.

 MEETING RECAPS: 2025 | 2024 | 2023

• 3/17/25: Library policy passes • Finance • Students heckled by community member

• 2/24/25: Second read of policy 109.1. Board won't budge event after students call for compromise and head librarian shares her concerns during the public comment period.

• 2/10/25: First read of policy 109.1 after interlibrary loan amendment 

• 1/22/25: Board reviews their own governance and ethics policies

• 1/13/25: Board votes down teachers' request for Angel of Greenwood

• 1/9/25: Amending redlined book policy • Experts and students silenced, ignored, undermined

PR School Board In the News

2025

• Podcast: Pine-Richland school board approves library policy in contentious vote (triblive.com)

• Pine-Richland passes final read of controversial library policy, defining process to challenge books (Post-Gazette)

• Pine-Richland board gives itself final power of book selections at school library (Trib)

• Controversial policy on library resources passes at Pine-Richland School District (WTAE)

• Pine-Richland passes second read of controversial book policy (Post-Gazette) 

• Author of book rejected by Pine-Richland School Board draws large crowds during local visit (Trib)

• Angel of Greenwood: Pine-Richland students distribute book rejected for 9th grade curriculum (WTAE)

• Birmingham Author's Book Creating Controversy in Pittsburgh School System (Birmingham Times)

• Pine-Richland School Board takes next step in implementing controversial library policy (Trib) 

• Meet the Pine-Richland student fighting to keep access to books in her school (Post-Gazette) 

• Author of book rejected by Pine-Richland School board wants to visit district in late February (Trib)

• Pine-Richland School Board rejects proposal that sought to punish members for not signing document (Trib)

• Pine-Richland junior creates petition to oppose school board library policy (Trib)

• Author of book rejected by Pine-Richland School Board wants to visit district (Trib Live)

• Pennsylvania District Won’t Allow Novel Set During Tulsa Race Massacre into Curriculum (School Library Journal)

• Editorial: In Pine-Richland book wars, a lack of trust makes solutions impossible (Post-Gazette)

• Pine-Richland timeline: How the school district's controversial book policy has evolved (Post-Gazette)

• The Free App That Makes School Book Bans Pointless (Pittsburgh Magazine)

• Pine-Richland School Board rejects book during heated meeting (Trib Live)

• Pine-Richland School Board considers new library policy that would ban books (KDKA - CBS News) 

• Pine-Richland School Board meets to discuss what critics call potential book ban (WPXI)

• Pine-Richland School Board meeting on controversial book policy turns heated (Post-Gazette)

• Tempers flare during 7-hour Pine-Richland school board meeting over book policy (Trib)

2024

• Pine-Richland school board starts to review controversial book policy proposal (Post-Gazette)

• Florida May Provide a Window Into How Pennsylvania's New Right-Wing School Board Organization Might Operate. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania School Directors Coalition founder Christina Brussalis is tight-lipped about who's funding the organization, who's on the board, and whether they are working with the Independence Law Center. (Bucks County Beacon)

• A group to rival the Pennsylvania School Board Association (PSBA)? A conservative member has launched an alternative (Philadelphia Inquirer)
  Click here to read about the PSBA, the pro-public school organization that PR school director Christina Brussalis is fighting with her Moms for Liberty-inspired political organization.

• Books targeted to be removed will remain in Pine-Richland school libraries (Post-Gazette)

• Fighting Book Bans in Pennsylvania (The Humanist)

2023

• Pine-Richland voters elect school board members who support book ban (KDKA)

• Books targeted for banning by Western Pa. school board members are almost never checked out, analysis shows (Post-Gazette)

• Pine-Richland to reconsider school library policy after complaints about books (Trib)