ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) – The Rockingham County School Board has cleared another challenged book to return to school libraries and classrooms, but two more will undergo extra scrutiny.

The board voted unanimously during last night’s meeting to reallow “The School for Good and Evil” by Soman Chainani after reviewers said that it contained no sexually explicit content. However, a motion to reinstate two others – “The Kite Runner” and “My Friend Dahmer” – failed on a 2-2 tie.

Hollie Cave sided with Chairman Matt Cross in voting no. She recommended delaying the motion until next month, when absent board member Ashley Burgoyne could be involved.

“And now we have one book that has one line that honestly, I’m like, I don’t know if it meets the definition,” Cave said. “I think it’s worthy of having all board members here to say and for us to take them up, to think about it because we’re not in school to talk about it as board members. Like, what do we really think about it?”

Last month, the board reinstated six other titles that had been flagged for review.

An exit from the VSBA

The Board also voted are pulling out of a statewide school board organization that the majority of board members said has become too liberal.

They voted 3-1 during last night’s meeting to vacate the Virginia School Boards Association at the end of the month. Ashley Burgoyne was not present and did not vote.

Board member Jackie Lohr cast the lone ‘no’ vote, telling fellow members that bailing out of an association they don’t align with just takes another conservative voice out of the equation.

“We vote on what those talking points should be, as long as we’re members,” Lohr said. “When we’re no longer members, we no longer have a voice. We no longer have a vote, but they are a big, big machine and they will continue to lobby and they have the ears of a lot of politicians. And if we’re no there to vote on ”

However, the rest of the board disagreed, choosing instead to leave the VSBA for the School Board Member Alliance. Chairman Matt Cross said that, with more school boards across the commonwealth turning red, those concerns would be unwarranted.

“As school boards are around Virginia that are flipping over to more conservative boards, you’re seeing more people leave the VSBA and we do see a networking between those boards to find a better way,” Cross said.

The conservative-leaning School Board Member Alliance operates on an individual, member-by-member basis.