Workers Mistakenly Destroy Textbooks

Pleasant Valley Elementary School District employees mistakenly shredded hundreds of new and used textbooks worth an undetermined amount of money last fall, including books currently used in classrooms.

The books, as well as art supplies and science kits, were destroyed and recycled into cardboard after employees cleaned out the district’s book depository.

District policy requires the school board to approve the destruction of any instructional materials, but employees acted without the board’s knowledge, said Barbara Wagner, assistant superintendent of education services.

Wagner said she was still investigating the incident, which a parent brought to the attention of the administration in November. Wagner also plans to review the book disposal policy.

“The process was circumvented, and we’re looking at how that happened,” she said.

Most of the books, including reading, social science and history texts, were to be disposed of because they contained outdated information or social or racial stereotypes, Wagner said.

But about 15% were science and literature books that are still used by teachers as supplemental material, she said.

The art supplies were also still usable, as were petri dishes and seed germination planters in the science kits.