CENTERBURG – Centerburg’s school board postponed its vote on adopting new literacy curricula for the elementary school after parents requested more time to review materials at Monday’s board meeting.
Centerburg’s literacy team presented its recommendations for elementary literacy curriculum changes to the board during its March board meeting.
The elementary school has been piloting two curricula throughout the current school year, and the literacy team recommended implementing a combination of the two —Core Knowledge Language Arts from Amplify in kindergarten through second grade and Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for third through fifth grade.
On Monday, three parents requested more time for parents and caregivers to read the curricula materials themselves ahead of a board vote, specifically citing concerns about not knowing what will be in the content of stories taught.
No objections were made to the phonemic awareness/skill building portions of the curriculum.
Content concerns voiced were mainly limited to fourth grade CKLA materials.
Roughly 25% of the fourth grade CKLA content was supplemented during the pilot year after teachers flagged it as inappropriate, Centerburg’s director of teaching and learning Barb Gentille Green said.
Gentille Green said the fourth grade-level content concerns were a factor in why the literacy team did not recommend CKLA for the upper grades.
While the literacy team did not suggest CKLA for fourth grade, parents said concerns at that grade level raised alarm for them about content in other grade levels, describing the fourth grade content as having “dark” and “negative” language.
CKLA has been piloted in the grade levels the literacy team has suggested it be adopted for — kindergarten through second grade — and there have not been any major content concerns, Gentille Green said.
“We did talk to the company about, if we find there is a story in one of the grade levels that isn’t comfortable with somebody, there are some ways that we can supplement that through the company,” Gentille Green said.
The district hosted two public review meetings where parents and community members could learn about the curricula, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. March 25 and from 4 to 5:30 p.m. April 6. Parents present Monday voiced concern that hosting the reviews during school hours prevented working parents from attending.
As a result of these parental concerns Monday, Centerburg’s board postponed its vote on curriculum adoption until its May board meeting. The date for additional review(s) was not set Monday but there was discussion of possibly having teachers who have piloted the curriculum this year present to directly answer parent questions.
Ahead of the board’s postponement, Gentille Green raised concerns that delaying the vote could make a difference as to whether teachers receive the curricula materials before summer vacation to familiarize themselves with it before next school year, citing previous delays acquiring the pilot materials before the 2021-22 school year.
Gentille Green said the estimated high-end cost of the CKLA curriculum at this time is roughly $59,000. Elementary principal Miguel Thompson said he is awaiting a quote about the price of Into Reading but expects a similar figure.
