Dupage Policy Journal

Parent Stephanie Clark said the recent decision by the District 41 (D41) school board to engage with the Learning 2025 program introduces the district to "equity" training similar to critical race theory.

“People should be outraged. The board literally spent four minutes discussing this and said it was tied to the social and emotional development of our kids. That was it. They’ve slipped in a critical race theory curriculum without anybody knowing,” Clark told DuPage Policy Journal. 

In an email to parents, former D41 school board president Erica Nelson said current president Robert Bruno and others are inserting "diversity" teaching to Glen Ellyn District 41. 

"Bob told me there are District initiatives coming that will be very difficult for people to get on board with – Diversity being one,” Nelson wrote in an email to parents ahead of Friday night's school board meeting. 

Nelson, who was Glen Ellyn League of Women Voters president last year, said Friday’s in-person meeting regarding mask usage in the district will be a test to see how parents handle themselves in public prior to the introduction of potential equity training in the future. 

“Personally attending this meeting means that you will be seated with parents / community members other than the group you arrived with and be required to follow the plan and norms of behavior at the meeting,” Nelson said in the email. 

Nelson said the district wants to avoid parents rallying.

“The D87 board meeting this past Monday night was horrific — a large contingent of parents following the St. Charles D303 model – t-shirts and vitriolic comment,” Nelson wrote. 

Bruno — an avowed Marxist with scandal in his past — was backed by the Glen Ellyn Education Association for school board and has seen an overhaul of the school board, even investigating one of his fellow school board peers who identifies as a Republican. 

Bruno is provided discretion to shut down meetings as D41 noted in recently introduced rules to the Committee of the Whole meetings. 

“If an audience member fails to comply with the norms or refuses to follow the conversation topic (or otherwise disrupts the meetings), the Board President will redirect the behavior. If the behavior continues, the Board President (or designee) will call for a recess,” a pamphlet on the Committee of the Whole meetings reads.

The Learning 2025 program was embraced by the district in late June. The program bills itself as a “student-centered, equity-focused education” calling for “a holistic redesign of the public school system.” 

“No Learner Marginalized: ALL children, families and staff must be embraced, valued equally and served with equity — regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic circumstance or disability,” the School Superintendents Association’s (AASA) website reads.

As part of the program, the school system will undergo a structural change, including the “culture” of a school. 

“It is about realigning and re-engineering school,” D41 Superintendent Melissa Kaczkowski said in a June board meeting when introducing the program. 

After a five-minute presentation from Kaczkowski, D41 board members invited an AASA representative into the June 28 board meeting and devoted $14,000 per year to the program. 

Kaczkowski has been superintendent since 2019. She makes $212,500 per year.