On June 18, 2026, LION issued an Open Letter to the seven members of the Wylie ISD Board of Trustees on the January 13, 2026 Literature Review Committee approval of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon as required AP English Literature reading at Wylie East High School.
The letter asks the Board to place three items on the agenda of its next meeting:
- Formal rescission of the January 13, 2026 approval as a district record.
- The open-meeting and 72-hour public-notice question under 19 Texas Administrative Code §66.104(a).
- A written reconciliation, on the public record, of the documented contradictions below.
The letter rests entirely on the district’s own records — four Texas Public Information Act productions and the district’s own correspondence. Three threads:
The Superintendent’s position has shifted in writing
The district’s stated rationale for the book did not survive its own follow-up correspondence. On April 29, 2026, Superintendent Dr. Kim Spicer wrote that Song of Solomon “is currently included on its publicly available list of recommended texts for AP English Literature, the novel will remain an available option for students.” Six days later, she reversed that rationale:
“You are correct that the College Board does not require specific titles for AP English Literature and Composition.”
Dr. Kim Spicer, Wylie ISD Superintendent — May 5, 2026
In the same May 5 message she stated the novel “will not appear on any Wylie ISD independent reading lists” and “will not be included in approved classroom libraries or teacher-maintained reading lists.”
The district says the book does not align with its values — and at the same time declines to remove it from the record. On April 29, Dr. Spicer wrote that Song of Solomon “does not align with the expectations and values of our school board and community.” On May 5 she confirmed that “the January 13, 2026 approval has not been formally rescinded as a district record,” and on May 19, 2026 she declined LION’s request to rescind it.
What the district has now certified does not exist
On June 17, 2026, the district certified in writing that no records exist for five categories central to how the January 13 approval was made. Answering a LION follow-up, the district’s answer to each was the same:
“No such documents exist.”
Wylie ISD — June 17, 2026
The five categories:
- The reader-evaluation reports from the three assigned readers.
- The written Literature Review Committee approval to the proposing teacher and campus administrator.
- Any written directive to AP English IV teachers regarding classroom discussion of the book.
- The communications surrounding the Wylie HS library-availability decision.
- The communications demoting the book from “Whole Group” to “Lit Circle Only” placement.
The district’s own Literature Review Committee Guidelines require that written approval:
“If approved, the Literary [sic] Review Committee will give written approval to the proposed teacher and campus administrator of the level of approval.”
Wylie ISD Literature Review Committee Guidelines
The district has now confirmed that document was never created. The January 13 approval therefore stands without the documentation the district’s own procedure requires — and without any reader-evaluation report, the basis the Guidelines identify for the Committee’s decision.
A de-shelving decision with a one-email paper trail
On June 11, 2026, the district produced a single record on the library-availability question: an April 2, 2026 email in which the Secondary Library Coordinator directed Wylie HS staff to keep the book “at the circ desk” and to “verify if they are needing it for a class assignment or if they are wanting it for leisure reading.”
LION asked the district for the rest of that communications chain. On June 17, 2026, the district answered:
“Wylie ISD has no additional documents related to this request.”
Ian M. Halperin, Wylie ISD — June 17, 2026
On the district’s own account, the removal of a book from open library shelving rests on a single email — with no record of the instruction that prompted it, no reply, and no documentation of the book’s final disposition.
The Open Letter is published here in full and is being delivered to each member of the Board. The Board’s response — or its non-response — will become part of the public record LION maintains on this engagement.
Sources: WYLIEISD-PIA-001 through -004 productions; Wylie ISD correspondence, April 29 – June 17, 2026. All documents on file at LION and linked above.
Errors or corrections: corrections@lionwatchtx.org
