The Peoria Public Schools Board of Education on Monday approved a sweeping literacy curriculum overhaul, replacing programs set to expire at the end of June.
The purchase totals nearly $1.85 million and covers new reading materials for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
The decision came after a year-long process driven largely by teachers. Forty-three educators from 12 district buildings spent the school year piloting three competing programs before voting on their top choice.
Curriculum coordinator Lindsay Bohm told the board the timing was not optional.
“Our current core resources for literacy are a little outdated,” Bohm said. “They are set to sunset at the end of June, which means we could no longer get additional copies of text or digital support from the company.”
She said delaying the adoption would risk stacking multiple curriculum renewals on top of each other in future years.
“A guaranteed and viable tier-one instructional resource is the first step to increasing literacy outcomes for our students,” she said.
For kindergarten through fourth grade, 68% of pilot teachers chose K-12 Curriculum Associates' Magnetic Literacy.
The vote also addressed concerns about an active lawsuit against Curriculum Associates over student data privacy. Bohm said the lawsuit is not an issue for Illinois districts that are protected through Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA) agreements that govern how student data can be used.
The board approved the Curriculum Associates program at $1,591,533 for a six-year license, along with its Spanish counterpart Mosaico.
For fifth grade, the board approved HMH Into Reading and Arriba la Lectura for $257,101, also on a six-year license. Both purchases will be funded through a mix of Title I and district funds.
The split was deliberate. Because Peoria's fifth graders are housed in middle school buildings, Bohm said aligning them to the HMH platform already used in grades six through eight made more sense than tying them to the K-4 system.
Board member Christina Rose said she watched all three pilot curricula come home with her own child over the course of the year.
“When I heard from teachers, and when Mrs. Bohm presents saying that 68% of the teachers in the pilot want this same thing that I've seen in action, I can kind of have a clearer picture of how engaging it is,” she said.
District presentations
Before the votes, the board heard a presentation from Hult Center Youth Mental Health Program Coordinator Payton Beach, who has spent two years bringing mental health education into Peoria classrooms.
Beach told the board her programming reaches students at every level, from pre-K lessons on naming emotions to suicide prevention conversations with high schoolers.
“Every class ends with me telling them where they can go for help,” she said. “Every class ends with me telling them that they are capable of doing incredible things.”
This school year alone, 2,207 students received programming through Erica's Lighthouse, a curriculum developed after a Peoria-area family lost their 14-year-old daughter to suicide in 2004. Beach said students are not just absorbing the material, they're applying it.
Beach also described working with students in the district's Options program at Manual High School. She said older students were going through the motions, but not really thriving.
“Nobody had ever asked them how they were feeling,” she said.
Beach said the results speak for themselves. After completing the Erica's Lighthouse curriculum, more than 84% of students showed measurable gains in both their knowledge of mental health and in how they said they would handle difficult situations in the future.
Other business
In other action, the board:
— Confirmed the March 17 election results, certifying Andres "Andy" Diaz (District 2: 2,190 votes) and Sarah Howard (District 3: 3,138 votes) as the winners.
— Learned student board members for 2026-2027 are Maleya Hayes (Manual), Chassity Johnson-Nunn (Peoria High), and Jack Bowman (Richwoods).
— Approved a NWEA MAP testing renewal for grades 5-8 at $40,876, used three times annually.
— Approved a summer speech and debate contract with Advantage Communications for $65,000, serving up to 70 students in grades 4-8, including nationals coaching for nine students competing in Virginia in June.
— Approved employment contracts for Ann Bond (Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services, through June 2029), Lindsay Bohm (Director of Curriculum and Instruction), Laura Rodgers (Executive Director of Middle Schools), Kathy Rodriguez (Executive Director of Primary Schools), and principals Katie Malahy (Charter Oak) and Deanne Tucker-White (Elise Fort Allen), all beginning July 1.
— Recognized several community members through its Remarkable Spirit awards, including the first-ever Black History Committee at Dr. C.T. Vivian Primary School, Special Education Work Coordinator Rhonda Smith of Peoria High School, Jamieson School Principal Maureen Lanholf, and Rolling Acres volleyball coach Marty Rohrer, whose JV and varsity squads both finished the season 10-1 and won city championships.
