DeKalb school board hopefuls talk book banning

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DeKALB – While the majority of candidates who addressed voters this week voiced strong opposition to book banning, one DeKalb School District 428 board hopeful said she doesn’t want books in school libraries that contain “explicit sexual imagery.”

Six of the 12 running for seats on the DeKalb School District 428 board answered questions from prospective voters and presented campaign pitches in front of a packed DeKalb Public Library room Sunday.

School board hopefuls in attendance – Erin Grych, Howard Solomon, Jose Jaques, Brandon Elion, Kristin Bailey and Nicholas Atwood– were asked how they would respond if a book “is challenged” in the district. Solomon previously served on the board.

In 2023, Gov. JB Pritzker signed anti-book banning legislation that ties state funding to open access policies surrounding materials used in public schools. The bill was meant to protect public and school libraries from pressure to ban, remove or restrict access to books based on “partisan or doctrinal disapproval,” Capitol News Illinois reported.

Libraries and public school library systems face a potential loss of state funding if they ban books locally, according to the law. Such libraries are only eligible for state grants if they adopt either the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or some other written statement prohibiting the practice of banning books or other materials.

A multi-race forum was hosted by WNIJ Radio and the DeKalb Election Group on Sunday at the DeKalb Public Library. The event also included live forums for candidates running for DeKalb Mayor, DeKalb City Clerk and DeKalb Township Supervisor. The forums were moderated by WNIJ’s Sue Stephens.

It’s a crowded race for three DeKalb school board seats this spring. Candidates Marilyn Parker, Derek Shaw, James Mitchell and Twangie Smith were not in attendance at the forum. Candidate Mark Charvat, who is running unopposed for a two-year unexpired term, was present at the event and invited to participate, Stephens said, but did not. Stephen Gaffney, who’d filed to run, withdrew his candidacy this week due to other professional responsibilities, he told Shaw Local News Network Wednesday.

Questions at the library forum were provided by audience members, Stephens said.

Meet some DeKalb school board candidates

Candidates' responses, listed in alphabetical order, have been edited down for length. To listen to their full responses from Sunday’s forum, visit www.northernpublicradio.org.

Atwood

Background, priorities: Works as an appellate prosecutor for the State of Illinois and is an NIU law school graduate and adjunct faculty professor. He has a 4-year-old who soon will attend the district. He’s running to provide transparency and accountability to the public. He said he wants to ensure district money is spent where it’s needed: in the classrooms. He said if elected, some of the goals include adding more teacher’s aids into the classroom by offering job seekers more pay. He said he also wants to see more reading and math specialists in elementary classrooms. He said he’d push the school board to pay for that by growing its property tax base like neighboring taxing bodies.

Response to book question: “If a parent has a problem with a book that’s in the library, simply tell your child not to check that book out. We need to have open flow of ideas. This is a school. We have to have all perspectives represented and the ability for these kids to learn and explore the world around them. So if an individual has a problem with a book, don’t check out the book. If there’s a question of obscenity there are guidelines from the U.S Supreme Court as far as making that kind of determination. If it is found to be obscenity, it should be removed. But that’s a high standard to me.”

Bailey

Background and priorities: Works in marketing and communications for an agriculture machinery manufacturer. She earned bachelors and doctorate degrees in English and taught college-level writing for a decade. She said her 8-year-old daughter attends St. Mary School because of “the violence in our local elementary school,” but she wants to help address that in DeKalb schools. If elected, she said she’d prioritize alleviating school violence and also ensuring teachers have efficient support, both administratively and in the classroom.

Response to book question: “I would want to understand the concerns, but also the context. How is this thing being used? [...] How it is being critically engaged? That is the purpose of texts like this. And education is all about being exposed to new ideas, being exposed to different ways of being, things we don’t agree with, things that bother us and make us uncomfortable. That is what education is, public education. [...] I am vehemently opposed to banning books.”

Elion

Background and priorities: Is a parent with children in the district. Has a bachelors degree in arts and sociology with an emphasis in criminology and works at Nestle. He helped found the Ezra Hill Jr. Memorial Foundation, a community outreach group that’s currently helping DeKalb wrestling kids to obtain scholarships. He said he’s running to put students first. If elected, he’d prioritize beefing up the district’s early learning program by making it a full day, and fostering more community engagement:

Response to book question: “No, I don’t think we should go down the route of banning books. [...] If there’s a book that is found offensive, I believe that conversation needs to be between those parents and that child. That’s also where the education starts. But for us to ban a book that one person may find offensive, you may have a group of other people that don’t find it offensive.”

Grych

Background and priorities: Attended DeKalb schools herself, earned a master’s degree in Nebraska and now works as a preschool music teacher. She’s a mother of four and sits on the Jefferson Elementary School PTA. She said she wants to “foster American patriotism” in DeKalb schools, and represent families who want to have a say in curriculum and be active in classrooms. Grych said she’s running in part “to stop the radical sexualization of our children. She said she wants to reverse the 2022 Illinois State Board of Education ruling that adopted statewide standards for sexual education mandated under Illinois law.

Response to book question: “Despite losing federal funding, I would like for our libraries to do their best to not have sexually explicit material especially in our elementary classrooms, or available there. They are innocent.” Putting them [books] out to display and, ‘Oh, pick me, pick me,’it’s not helpful. Especially if they have beautiful colored illustrations that draw them [students] in. As far as challenging what is already in existence, I definitely want to hear what this community has to say, and I would like to uphold what they say and listen to their suggestions of how we handle it and who would you like to handle it?”

Jaques

Background, priorities: A retired DeKalb police officer who also worked as a School Resource Officer, he said he raised two children in DeKalb schools and now has three grandchildren in the district. He said if elected he wants more fiscal transparency and to improve safety and security. He said he’s advocate for smaller class sizes.

Response to book question: “First I’d listen to the challenge, find out why they’re having problems,” taking into consideration the funding risks. “Whether you like that situation or not the reality is you have to take that into consideration. [...] The most crucial part about this, and I’m harping on fiscal responsibility, is losing the funding for the entire district’s library budget because a few parents have a problem with a book that could, I’m not saying should be banned, it’s more educating students about when they should be reading that or the proper time or under what circumstances [reading it] might be a little inappropriate.”

Solomon

Background and priorities: Solomon served on the school board from 2015 to 2019. He said he wants to be responsible to constituents and would want to address student behavior issues. He said a priority if elected also would be to better retain teachers, including a push for newer teachers to get a larger pay bump the more they stay in the district.

Response to book question: “I oppose banning books period.That’s for starters. I understand there may be some parents who are a little bit worried about exposing their children to certain things that parents don’t want to expose their children to. And should a parent raise a point of contention about a book it should stay in the library but be quarantined. And the only people that are subject to the quarantine are the children of those parents who raised the concern. [...] Other students for whom those books are not quarantined would still be able to get to them or get the information out for whatever it is they gained.”