Penfield Central School District staff and teachers are asking the school board to approve some new textbooks for use in their classes.
Those include contemporary books like “The Lost Year,” by Katherine Marsh, which was published in 2023.
The book interweaves the story of a 13-year-old boy living through the COVID-19 pandemic with his family’s story during the Holodomor, a man-made famine in 1930s Ukraine during Stalin’s regime. That book would be for ninth grade English classes.
“It explores themes of survival, truth, family secrets, the importance of remembering history,” John Baxter, chair of the English Language Arts Department, said at a school board meeting on Tuesday. “The book offers a deeply human lens on a historic atrocity that is often overlooked in western curricula.”
Staff and teachers are also recommending approval of a collection of essays that explore Black culture and cultural icons in the U.S. titled, “A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance” by MacArthur Fellow Hanif Abdurraqib.
“It's how these artists have shaped and been shaped by the cultural landscape of the United States,” Baxter said. “It's essentially essays that would work really well for a class that I teach at the high school, which is a senior elective called ‘music as literature.’”
The recommendations also include adopting historical texts like the critically acclaimed autobiography of Malcolm X for eleventh grade AP English classes.
The American Library Association lists the book as one that is frequently challenged. According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, books by Black authors, including the autobiography, are among the most frequently banned.
“This book is set during a period marked by the Civil Rights Movement, segregation and widespread calls for social change,” Sheena Conway, the district's director of humanities said. “This book remains a significant historical document and a key resource for our students to understand the complexities of race, religion and activism in modern American history.”
The books under consideration by the board also include an AP Biology textbook to replace the current one from 2015, and a French language reader titled “La magie de Manie,” for advanced beginners and intermediate learners.
“It takes place in a ninth-grade classroom in Maine. It focuses on three students, one with Canadian roots, French-Canadian roots, and one who's an immigrant from Senegal,” French teacher Julie Wilkins said. “It deals with issues of identity, bullying culture, just sort of trying to figure out who you are, friendship and support, and it uses a lot of high frequency language,"
Wilkins said she aims to participate with her students in an exchange program with students in Senegal.
“So, it would be just a little extra boost, another way to kind of ... introduce the Senegalese culture,” she said.
School board member Aaliyah El-Amin-Turner noted a common thread in many of the books: diversity.
“We know that that word has been made out to be a bad word in this time. And we know — but research has shown, history has shown, biology has shown — that diversity is a positive thing,” El-Amin-Turner said. “But I do wonder how are you all prepared as educators to address maybe some of the pushback that you may receive?”
The response from staff and teachers presenting their recommendations was clear.
“The critical thinking, the media literacy, the cross curricular connections, just make these great texts to teach from,” Baxter said. “Never been one to worry too much about how we present it as long as we believe in it.”
Teachers are encouraged to communicate with families about books being used in classes, Conway said.
“There's a lot of rich conversations that can happen between home and school related to these texts,” she said.
According to the school board's policy manual, it is expected to make a decision shortly after receiving a formal request from staff to adopt instructional materials, like books.
The recommendations come at a time when the federal government is attempting to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion — or D.E.I. — practices in schools. That is something the New York State Education Department has pushed back on.
In response to a Department of Education memo earlier this year calling on states to certify that “illegal” D.E.I. practices would be barred in schools, NYSED refused to comply, saying that there are no state or federal laws banning D.E.I. principles.
The textbook recommendations also come on the heels of several library book challenges in the district.
In late April, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Leslie Maloney sent a letter to families with an update on three book challenges that were assigned to committees for re-evaluation — “The Rainbow Parade,” by Emily Nielson, “Aliens and Other Visitors (Not Near Normal: Paranormal),” by Ruth Owen, and “The Bluest Eyes” by Toni Morrison.
"The Review Committees have determined that these books should remain in circulation at our school libraries,” Maloney wrote. “We understand that some families will be happy with this decision, and others may be disappointed.”
Of those challenges, The Rainbow Parade was the most public. For both Nielson and Morrison's books, each committee stated that the challenge against keeping the books in a school library underscored their importance.
“This book is essential for its accurate representation of identities that our students, families, faculty and staff hold,” the report for Nielson’s book states. “Should a family have concerns with the book, we recommend they make the school librarian aware so that their child’s account can be annotated as such.”
