After Grapevine Colleyville ISD cancelled its book fairs, parents organized their own
GRAPEVINE (CBSDFW.COM) - After Grapevine Colleyville ISD cancelled its Scholastic book fairs, a group of parents stepped in this weekend to hold their own.
Browsing over books, shoppers at the Grapevine Convention Center Friday afternoon showed their support.
"It was like some of my favorite things to do growing up," said Andrea Stevens, a GCISD graduate looking for books for her niece and nephew.
"It's just a wonderful thing. Who would want to stop that?" said Judy Leddy.
GCISD in August announced it was cancelling its contract with Scholastic because of concerns it might sell books that weren't age appropriate.
"I was like, 'whoa, why don't we just organize our own?' " said Kristine Leathers.
A former teacher and reading specialist with two kids of her own in the district, she reached out to Scholastic and fellow parents.
'Our volunteer sign up was packed immediately," she said.
While GCISD said it wasn't able to get an advance list of books Scholastic would sell, Leathers said she was offered one and declined it.
"It was important - we discussed it as a team - that parents have choice. And, people aren't choosing for the parents. Parents have choice," she said.
Organizers say school board politics here have become so heated they considered hiring security for the event. To encourage people to get involved, they have a voter registration table.
GCISD, meanwhile, said it has a new contractor for its own book fairs and will start holding them again sometime later this school year. For those unwilling to wait, though, the Scholastic book fair will open again Saturday from 9:30am to 4:30pm at the Grapevine Convention Center.