Special Public Hearing Addresses Balch School Textbook Controversy

At a special public hearing called by the school committee on Saturday to address mounting community tensions, Norwood School Superintendent Dr. Philip O. Coakley assured roughly 50 parents that pupils across the district are permitted to take textbooks home at the discretion of their teachers.

The controversy erupted after parents of students at South Norwood’s Balch School alleged they were being educationally discriminated against, claiming their children were barred from taking textbooks home for study unlike students in other town schools. Parents had expressed acute concern that Balch School Principal Mrs. Mildred Lane was enforcing an excessively strict interpretation of district policy by forbidding all texts from leaving the building without her prior direct approval.

Superintendent Coakley Attributes Dispute to “Misunderstanding” Over Basal Texts

Dr. Coakley characterized the dispute as a simple “misunderstanding” stemming from confusion over basal texts versus supplementary schoolbooks. Explaining that a basal book serves as the fundamental text for a specific subject, Coakley noted that these core volumes do not ordinarily go home because unsupervised use outside of class could hinder rather than help a child. However, he emphasized that general district policy—which has remained in effect since 1936—gives teachers full professional discretion.

“If on any given day, for any given reason, a teacher decides a book should go home, it can go home,” Dr. Coakley stated. “It doesn’t matter whether the book is old or new. The judgment of the teacher is tantamount to the approval of the principal.”

School Committee Chairman Francis V. Sheehan reinforced the superintendent’s stance, noting that in 99 out of 100 cases a teacher’s decision is final and would rarely be overridden. Committeeman Charles C. Saraca added that if any principal attempted to enforce an invalid restriction on books going home in the future, he would personally “call the principal on the carpet.” While Dr. Coakley maintained that principals have a legitimate supervisory duty to prevent the indiscriminate home-distribution of books—particularly given high teacher turnover—parents adopted a cautious stance, with one young mother remarking, “We’ll just have to wait and see if the policy is carried out.”

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger