At Monday’s East Aurora School District 131 board meeting, numerous local leaders and community members called on board member Mayra Reyes to resign following a controversy concerning comments she made last year about the district’s dual language program during an interview for an open school board position.
“As far as the dual language program, I’m not as in support of it as I once was,” Reyes said at the time, according to audio obtained by The Beacon-News of the portion of the interview that has been generating backlash from community members. “I struggle with the fact that we are now giving the advantage that Spanish speakers may have at one point or another had over somebody who wasn’t bilingual. Now we’re making us all kind of even in that playing field.”
In the audio recording, she gave the example that an “African American kid who did not grow up speaking Spanish” might now be able to speak Spanish “along with the kid who did grow up speaking Spanish and may have at one point had a job translating,” saying that the African American child now “can do that, too.”
“So, I feel like that advantage has now been taken away,” Reyes is heard saying in the audio recording.
Reyes was ultimately not selected for the open board position at the time, she noted at Monday’s meeting, but ran for a seat on the board and was elected in April. She and board member Vannia Valencia ousted two incumbent board members, Theodia Gillespie and Bruce Schubert.
More recently, the NAACP, Quad County Urban League and other local Black leaders have become vocal about their concerns with the district and began calling on Reyes to resign.
Before Monday’s board meeting, Halverson addressed the situation in an email addressed to the “East Aurora Team” obtained by The Beacon-News.
“Over the past year,” the email from Halverson reads, “my team and I have worked intentionally to ensure that school and departmental improvement plans include specific steps to foster a culture of belonging for all.” The email says the district’s focus is on “building systems that are transparent, supportive, and rooted in respect so that every staff member and every student feels seen and valued.”
The email goes on to say that “moments like this remind us that the work we do matters deeply and that our community is watching closely,” and that they “provide an opportunity for us to stand together and demonstrate through our presence and our actions that we are deeply committed and dedicated to making the district strong, welcoming and supportive for everyone.”
Halverson did not return The Beacon-News’ requests for further comment on Tuesday.
The matter came to a head at Monday’s school board meeting, when numerous local leaders and community members spoke for more than an hour in the public comment period of the meeting to call for Reyes’ resignation and air their concerns with the district.
Monday evening, Quad County Urban League President Theodia Gillespie said she and other leaders have raised their concerns about Reyes’ comments and asked for “real accountability,” including “staff training, safeguards to protect staff and students and a culture that builds trust and not fear.”
To applause from the audience, Gillespie said she and others are requesting Reyes resign.
East Aurora’s dual language program offers instruction in both Spanish and English, and aims to “prepare students for a bright future with abilities to listen, speak, read, and write in both English and Spanish, as well as develop an appreciation for different cultures,” according to the district’s website.
The district’s makeup is nearly 90% Hispanic, with Black students making up about 7.6% of the student body, per the most recent available data from the Illinois State Board of Education.
“This person’s comments (make) a mockery of the relationship that we are building with our Latin brothers and sisters,” DuPage County NAACP President Michael Childress said at Monday’s meeting. “It puts everything in terms of a zero-sum game.”
Longtime educator Cynthia Latimer said the comments “run counter to what public education is all about,” and said that Reyes, in the recording, “explicitly labels and singles out a specific group of non-Spanish-speaking students.”
“We are better than this,” Latimer said at the meeting. “There is no place for … these kinds of thoughts in education.”
Elgin Community College professor Vincent Gaddis asked about whether Reyes’ comments align with district values.
“Do we want Black and brown communities united in the cause of creating great education experiences for all students?” Gaddis asked in the public comment portion of the meeting. “Or do we want to create a divide that ultimately hurts us all?”
Following comments from a number of other individuals at the meeting, Reyes apologized for the comments she made.
“I regret not being able to express myself more clearly, and I deeply apologize for the hurt and frustrations I clearly have caused,” she said, noting that it was “never (her) intention to offend or discriminate in any way, shape or form against any minority group.”
Reyes noted that she was “very nervous” at the time she was being interviewed and “so focused on responding to the questions being asked that (she) failed to respond to this particular question with the sensitivity and care that it warranted.”
She said she “will work tirelessly to ensure that the goals set forward by this board to benefit the district employees, the students and community are achieved,” and said she is “renewing (her) commitment to stand with this Board of Education, the administration, the teachers, support staff and the community to ensure that every child in District 131 receives high-quality education regardless of their race, background, economic status or legal standing.”
Reyes did not return requests for further comment on Tuesday.
In addition to the calls for Reyes’ resignation, some who spoke at the meeting criticized the whole school board for not responding to the concerns raised about the matter.
At the meeting, East Aurora School District Board President Juan Sifuentes said that “every student and staff member in East Aurora deserves to feel safe, respected and supported,” and that the district has to “renew with urgency” that commitment.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Sifuentes said, “but it is essential, and it is something that we have to do together as a community.”
Halverson said at Monday’s meeting that he is “still open to meeting together to remedy this problem and figure out exactly what we need to do to continue to support all of the students within our school district, regardless of color, race, creed … and I would love to have other constituents that want to come to the table being problem-solvers for the entire community, come to that table as well.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com