After another onslaught of public comments urging board members to “do the right thing” and reestablish the program, the Millburn District 24 Board of Education reversed its earlier decision and voted Monday to reinstate the Illinois Readers’ Choice summer reading programs.
A second grader from Millburn Elementary School spoke during public comment, asking the board to continue the reading programs because he didn’t think children would be as excited without the reading challenges.
“I don’t think you should ban the program because you don’t want us to read one book,” the student said. “Even if we are young, we can still learn about these things. If you don’t learn about these topics, they might happen again.”
Board of Education President John Lorentzen cast the vote that flipped from the March meeting when the majority voted to withdraw the Readers’ Choice programs from Millburn’s elementary and middle schools after some board members found the programs’ book lists to be “left-leaning.”
The statewide Readers’ Choice programs include the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Program, the Monarch Award and the Bluestem Reading Challenge. More than 300 schools across the state participate in the Caudill program.
Books in the programs are selected from groups of librarians each year. Students who participate and read at least three books from a program are eligible to vote on their favorite book, and participate in extracurricular activities around reading and the selected titles.
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The board’s action in March was to, “eliminate the promotion and celebration of a program that is not equitable for all members of the community,” board member Lisa Wooster said during that meeting. The motion did not remove the books from school libraries.
On Monday, Wooster first made a motion to reinstate the reading programs with parental consent needed for students to participate. That motion failed 4-3, with only Wooster, John Ruggles and Peter Pettorini in favor of making students and parents have to opt into the program.
Following that vote, board member Fred Skeppstrom motioned to reinstate the programs as they were before the March 18 vote. The motion passed 4-3, with Skeppstrom, Lorentzen, Jillyen Phelps and Brendan Murphy in favor.
Last week, Wooster and Phelps met with some Millburn English and language arts teachers to discuss summer reading program options.
Phelps shared during the meeting that teachers supported the Readers’ Choice programs, and were “fearful” of what could happen if they chose books from the lists for their classes to read.
Skeppstrom and Murphy shared similar sentiments about concerns over making the program an “opt-in” with parental consent needed. The board members felt it was an undue burden on parents, who don’t typically have to approve their children’s curriculum.
“I cannot tell you how many field trips I missed as a child because I was terrible at bringing those (permission slips) back,” Murphy said. “So, it’s the wrong way to go if we want real participation in this.”
Former Millburn student Lia Neveu, a junior at Lakes Community High School, started an online petition in response to the board’s withdrawal from the reading programs. More than 1,700 people signed the petition.
“I would like to remind the Board of Education as well as the Millburn District 24 community that we will not give up,” Neveu said at the start of Monday’s meeting, during public comment. “Our fight is not over until these programs have been reestablished.”
chilles@chicagotribune.com
