Four parents speak in favor of keeping book in classroom

English teacher resigns last week

Four of the five parents who spoke at last Wednesday’s Stratford Board of Education meeting wanted the school board to approve the book advisory committee’s recommendations made on June 26, regarding whether or not to remove 14 free read books available for 10th graders to check out in a teacher’s classroom.

Two Stratford families filed a formal complaint with Stratford School District last school year that a teacher was allowing the sixth and 10th graders she taught in her classroom to check out what they deemed as inappropriate books to bring home and read.

In response to the families’ complaint, Stratford School District no longer allowed the sixth graders to check out the free read books. Dr. Nathan Lehman, Stratford schools superintendent, formed a book advisory committee comprised of school district staff, school board and community members to review the 14 questionable books and provide recommendations to the school board on whether or not each book should be removed from the teacher’s classroom so no student would have access to them.

The book advisory committee on June 26 voted unanimously to recommend the removal of the book, “Welcome to the Monkey House.” The committee voted 4-1 to recommend the removal of the book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Stratford School District then removed these two books from the teacher’s classroom.

Members of the book advisory committee only voted, 3-2, to keep the book, “The Hate U Give.” This recommendation resulted in school board members Chris Dickinson and Tyler Skaya questioning during the August school board meeting whether the school district should keep this book in the teacher’s classroom. Skaya read the book and said there was anti-police rhetoric in it. Four of the five parents spoke at the start of last Wednesday’s meeting in favor of keeping the book, “The Hate U Give,” in the classroom.

In the end, all the public comments were a moot point because the school board no longer needed to make a decision on the book following English teacher Rhianna Kubly’s resignation that school board members approved in the consent agenda during last Wednesday’s meeting.

Shelly Weis is a Stratford parent who was also a community member on the book advisory committee. She urged the school board to keep the book, “The Hate U Give.”

“I am here to talk about “The Hate You Give,” she told the school board. “I am asking the board to allow the book to stay in school. I think it was disengenous of what you did to have the committee read 14 books and then a month later, you added a policy and procedure about a book that you did not agree with because you wanted it out of the classroom. Ms. (Janeen) LaBorde told you students could choose to read this book for an assignment. In the 2023 graduating class, this book was read by three of the valedictorians Lexie Christopherson, Rachel Jennings and Connor Radtke and one of the salutatorians, Remi Weis.”

Parent Kristin Rasmussen told the school board she was not in favor of it censoring what books students could read. Parent Rita Hauke said she and her Stratford sixth grader enjoyed reading and discussing the book, “The Hate U Give.”

“Tyler (Skaya), if all you took out of that book was anti-police rhetoric then you need to read it again,” Hauke said. “Trust the committee’s decision. Refusing to accept its decision is an abuse of power that you hold. Remem- ber, you make decisions for all children and in order to do that, you must leave your personal preferences at the door. If you are not willing to do that, then this is not where you should be spending your time. There are plenty of private schools that would love to have you help them. This is a public institution, so remember that. I would like to thank Kitty (Guyer), Dustin (Skaya) and Jeannie (Tichy) for being the voice of reason at last month’s meeting by standing with the committee’s decisions.”

Jenny Chapel, a Stratford Elementary School teacher who is also a parent, pleaded to the school board that it keep the book “The Hate U Give” in the classroom.

“I read this book a few years ago and I thought it was amazing,” she said. “I told my daughter to read it and I messaged members of my book club that this book was awesome. This book gives a black person’s perspective on racial injustice. It is not a book that bashes the police. It’s about a girl torn between two worlds. I appreciate literature that helps students understand and relate to characters who are different than themselves. “The Hate you Give” exposes students to a different narrative. Students are the future and the best way to change is to help them have empathy for each other and become critical thinkers. This is a book that kids not only want to read but want to discuss as well.”

Chapel was concerned about the prospect of the school board possibly overriding the book advisory committee’s decision.

“I implore you to rethink your goals and how you were thinking about this situation,” she said. “Frankly, I was stunned to hear that some school board members want to cast aside the hard work and effort of the book advisory committee. This is wrong and it feels like some members of this school board have a secondary agenda. I truly think you school board members are representing the interest of all community members and not just your personal agendas. I am starting to feel a lack of trust between you and us. We are seeing what a lack of trust is doing to our school and it makes me wonder what other policies and issues will come under scrutiny in the future?”

Parent Joe Cable was the only person who did not speak in favor of the school board keeping the book, “The Hate U Give” in the teacher’s classroom.

“I feel the book advisory committee made judgements on the 14 books based on their personal feelings and opinions and not based on the school board’s policies,” he said. “Policies are standards and standards must be upheld by the elected officials.”

Cable provided another one of his concerns to the school board.

“Over and over the again the committee kept justifying to keep books that were inappropriate because students were already exposed to them,” he said. “That’s very troubling logic. The school allowing inappropriate conduct based on if students have been exposed to it or not is a dangerous path for it to do down. I wonder how many students in school have been exposed to pornography? School board policies were written by many people in the past to uphold the school district’s standards, so I expect the school board to uphold what is good, right and true.”

In other news:

The school board approved the school district’s hiring of Becky Lucio as a special education paraprofessional, Valerie Hoffman as assistant director of the musical; Rachel Bargender and Alexis Hofmann as co-forensics advisors; Ruth Joswiak and Kathy Ballerstein as student council advisors, Denise Marg as part-time special education director and Tanner Schlender as a middle/ high school math teacher.

Lehman told the school board the school district spent $146,983 in vouchers last school year, which is an increase from $75,204 spent on vouchers in the 2021-22 school year and $75,346 spent on vouchers during the 2020-21 school year. He said of the total $146,983 the school district spent on vouchers, approximately $60,000 of this amount went to St. Jospeh’s Catholic School in Stratford and the other approximately $80,000 went to Racine public schools.

The school board approved to allow Stratford High School FFA to attend the World Dairy Expo on Tuesday, Oct. 8, in Madison and the National FFA Convention & Expo on Nov. 1-4, in Indianapolis, Ind. Jackie Rosenbush, new Stratford agriscience teacher and FFA advisor, and Stratford FFA president Jasmine Weiland, gave the school board details of the FFA trips.

Lehman told the school board this is the first time since at least the 200708 school year that Stratford School District has more open enrollment students in than it does out. Stratford School District has 82 students open enrolled into this 2023-24 school year and 81 students who open enrolled out of the school district to attend school elsewhere.

The school board approved to allow the school district to enter an agreement with Montreal Bank to secure procurement cards for each authorized school district employee so teachers can spend money on supplies they need for their classrooms. Lehman said the school district currently only has two credit cards for coaches and teachers to use to buy supplies. He said the problem is these two credit cards are usually checkout out of the office by staff, so then other staff who need to buy supplies have to use their personal credit card.

Lehman said under this new p-card program, school district staff will need to fill out a form stating what supplies they are buying and how much they will cost. School administration will approve the staff member’s request before they are allowed to use their school credit card.

The next regular monthly school board and tax levy meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 18, in the high school band room.