The Millburn District 24 Board of Education has reversed its earlier decision and voted to reinstate the Illinois Readers’ Choice summer reading programs after public outcry and urging from students and teachers to “do the right thing.” The Board’s previous decision to eliminate the programs had been based on concerns that the book lists were “left-leaning.” However, board members have now reversed that decision, citing support from teachers and the community.
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.”
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.
However, after meeting with Millburn English and language arts teachers, Wooster and fellow board member Jillyen Phelps shared that teachers supported the Readers’ Choice programs and were concerned about the consequences of removing the books from their classrooms. Skeppstrom and Murphy echoed these concerns, emphasizing that making the program an “opt-in” with parental consent would place an undue burden on parents and potentially limit student participation.
“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, who started a petition in response to the board’s withdrawal from the reading programs that garnered over 1,700 signatures, expressed her gratitude for the board’s decision to reinstate the programs. “Our fight is not over until these programs have been reestablished,” Neveu said at the start of Monday’s meeting, during public comment.