Newfound School Board takes curriculum objections seriously

BRISTOL — Acknowledging parents’ concerns about a new reading program, the Newfound Area School Board has agreed to form a curriculum committee to review what is taught in the cooperative school district’s classes.

Since September, when the Newfound Area School District began using the Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum, several parents have appeared before the board with complaints about what they say is inappropriate content for elementary school students. Other parents have praised the program for incorporating history, science, literature, and the arts in a reading curriculum.

The district adopted the new curriculum after learning that the previous one would no longer be supported. A teachers’ committee evaluated four programs, with 60% of teaching staff voting for the Amplify CKLA. The other 40% were split between the remaining three.

“We chose CKLA because it was evidence-based: They had the data to show that it was effective at improving reading,” Superintendent Pierre Couture said.

He noted that Rochester is using the program and said they were very pleased with it. He was not aware of any other Lakes Region school district using CKLA.

“We have heard many positive comments from students and parents,” Couture said. “They like the fact that they are learning so much content knowledge about history and science while they learn to read.”

Not all parents are on board with the program, however, as evidenced by those attending recent school board meetings. They say the curriculum contains inappropriate content and language that “grooms” young students for exploitation by pedophiles.

Those objections continued at the Nov. 28 school board meeting when residents, including Katlin Sullivan Simula of Hebron, creator of the private Facebook group SAU 4 Safe Curriculum, appeared to share feedback.

The public introduction to the private group states, “We have an epidemic of sexual predators following our children, whether it be on the computers, whether it be in our public parks, whether it be in the workplace, or even our schools.”

Identifying herself as a former educator with a master’s degree in elementary education, Simula characterized Amplify as an unethical and immoral company, “desensitizing our children to sex and creating easy victims and molestation.” She said the reading curriculum contains “scary” pictures and inappropriate language.

“I have been kicked out of the Facebook group called Newfound Residents Uniting for Quality Education,” she said. “Myself and others have been called names like ‘racist,' ‘MAGA,' ‘troublemakers’ and ‘extremists.’”

Simula said many teachers are afraid to speak up in what she termed a hostile work environment. She noted that the superintendent had refused to share the content of the curriculum, claiming that it would violate the program’s copyright, until she filed a right-to-know request.

“I’ve done my own research and I’m appalled with what I’ve seen,” Simula said. “I’m in the process of creating a slideshow with examples.”

As an illustration of what she felt was inappropriate, Simula noted that there was a segment on the Taliban in which it said, “In her home country, a female could be beaten for public speaking.” In “Emma’s Poem,” it says, “Their homes have been burned, friends and relatives have been killed.”

“All true and part of our history, yes,” Simula said. “Too scary for second grade? Absolutely.”

Aubrey Freedman of Bridgewater, a frequent critic of the school district, called it “shameful” that taxpayers will be saddled with the $2,600 cost of legal advice on right-to-know requests that would not have been necessary had the superintendent turned over the materials when asked to do so.

At the same time, Freedman said that after he and another resident went through the third-grade curriculum, “Actually we agree ... that it’s not that bad. Actually, we were pretty pleased with most of it. Now, we did find a couple of sexual innuendos which have to go, but it was just a couple. ... I know that some of the parents just wanted the whole thing to go. Well, we just spent $108,000 already, so that’s a problem. That would be a waste to the taxpayers if we have to go to something new. And also, if we went to something else, there’s no guarantee that it will be any better, and it might be worse. This is not that bad.”

School board member Fran Wendelboe of New Hampton, known for her conservative credentials, previously expressed her opinion on the program after closely reviewing one grade’s curriculum, saying she found little that was objectionable in the content.

In an email exchange, Couture agreed that most of the concerns were unfounded.

“Our teachers have been very happy with the program,” he said. “They see what the students are learning and that their students are eager to learn, more than they were with the old program.”

Couture noted that teachers at various grade levels have been meeting to review the curriculum.

“Like all curriculums, our teachers can substitute reading materials or vocabulary words they are not comfortable with,” he said, adding that they have made decisions about what to remove.

That was not satisfactory to some speaking during Monday’s public comment period. Tiffany Reynolds of New Hampton said, “Just saying teachers don’t have to use the materials is not good enough. Those materials are still available for their use. We need to know right now and in the future that our children are safe.”

Several of the speakers, including those participate in the private Facebook group, called out the school district for a lack of “transparency” about what the curriculum contains.

Brenda Joyce of Alexandria said that abuse and sexualization of children is happening everywhere.

“Everybody thinks we live in this little protected area,” she said. “It’s here; we’re getting the same things. We’re trying to indoctrinate these kids. We’re trying to desensitize these kids and make some of these things be normal. They’re not normal. I don’t want them normalized for my grandchildren.These parents don’t want them normalized for their children. We need to work together and we need to make a committee where people can go through these things, and when people really see what’s in some of this stuff, I think you’re going to agree that a lot of this stuff needs to go.”

One parent from Bristol commented through an email, praising the plan to have a policy committee review the CKLA curriculum.

“My family and other parents I’ve spoken with are currently very pleased with the instruction and reading vocabulary and writing that our children are receiving,” she wrote, saying that objections to the vocabulary seem to be from interpreting the content using “an adult lens.”

“That is not the way such material is being taught,” she wrote. “I am pleased with the age-appropriate instruction my son is receiving. I want him to expand, be exposed to new ideas, to read about interesting people, places, and stories from around the world, from classic literature, such as ‘The Wind in the Willows’ and contemporary nonfiction about animal habitats.”

Couture will present a formal plan to establish a curriculum committee at the school board’s next meeting Monday, Dec. 12.

“We have been asked to improve our reading scores,” Couture said. “We selected the highest-rated program available. We have already begun to see improved reading scores. I am excited to see the impact on learning this program will have after a few years.”

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the date of the school board's next meeting on Monday, Dec. 12.