The Peoria Public Schools board is tabling a controversial $80,000 purchase of DNA genealogy testing kits for high school biology students.
The kits are tied into curriculum based upon the PBS show Finding Your Roots. Host Henry Louis Gates was the keynote speaker at this year's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon in Peoria. But parents and board members are raising concerns about the costs and privacy concerns.
Superintendent Sharon Kherat said parental permission would be needed, and an alternative curriculum would be available for kids who don't want to use the kits.
"The whole idea was to get them (students) more interested in STEM, and create a broader interest in biology and genetics and those sorts of things," Kherat said.
Board member Lynne Costic said tracing family trees is a personal matter.
"There are so very many variables in the family that people do not want to be known, and especially within the classroom environment," she said.
Costic suggested the district look at other programs like math.
The district would use some of its remaining COVID-19 relief funds to buy the kits. That money must be obligated by the end of this month, or returned to the government. The school board's next regular meeting isn't scheduled until Oct. 28, meaning a special meeting would need to be convened before the end of the month to spend the funds.
