West Cook News

A River Forest District 90 Board of Education member is questioning whether parents should determine what their children are taught in her community's public elementary schools. 

In a post on Facebook obtained by West Cook News, Katie Avalos, 43, said parents should trust the school board members they elected to make these decisions.

“I am not saying community input is not important just that it is important to find the balance," she wrote. "At some point it goes back to people voted for individual to oversee the superintendent, who then oversees the staff."

"How decentralized should the decision making be and what avenues should there be for community input?. How much do we want parents determining how kids are educated and how much do we want the educators determine how kids are educated?," Avalos wrote.

Avalos' comments come as parents nationwide challenge school boards over their insistence on teaching non-educational curriculum to children, including books with graphic descriptions of pedophilia and lessons promoting so-called "critical race theory," which holds that Western civilization is racist and capitalism is a tool of oppression and "white supremacy."

In October, Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe told voters he was “not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions."

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said. 

McAuliffe lost his election bid to Republican Glenn Youngkin.

A suburban Boston native, Avalos was first elected in 2019 and was re-elected in 2021, promising to "inspire students" by "prioritizing their social-emotional needs.. and fostering better relationships with their families and their community."

"We’re continuing our work to address the systemic racism, sexism, ableism that is a part of the American education system," she told the Wednesday Journal.

Avalos graduated from Boston College, where she studied political science and black studies.

The River Forest District 90 board includes Avalos, Cal Davis, Sarah Eckmann, Barb Hickey, Rich Moore, Nicole Thompson and Stacey Williams. All seven members are democrats.