Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a multi-part series on the impact of your vote for School Board Candidates, an OAA Voter Education Project

Candidate Jeff Myers’ is speaking out about how school boards are led into questionable and perhaps unlawful practices. School district have been steadily declining for years, and not just academics. One of the most important roles of a school board is to approve the core curriculum taught throughout the district. This doesn't mean the board members will review every book, every lesson, or every classroom activity. However, they do have the responsibility and authority to ensure the school district adheres to the standards, rules, and laws of our state. School boards have repeatedly failed to perform this vital function.

Jeff Myers, Beaverton school board candidate, researched Oregon law (ORS 337.120) and Oregon Administrative Rule (581-022-2350) when the school board voted to adopt the recommendations put forward by the school district administrators for their Elementary Social Science curriculum (grades K-5). He verified his findings with district staff, including Heather Cordie (Deputy Superintendent – Teaching & Learning), Kayla Bell (Administrator for Elementary Curriculum), and Aujalee Moore at the Oregon Department of Education.

Many school boards have made changes to the rules regarding public comments since the beginning of the pandemic in an attempt to muzzle parents. Testimony is being limited to two minutes per person. During Myers' two minutes, he outlined the violations of Oregon law and Oregon Administrative Rule that the district and school board committed to when they adopted their new Social Science curriculum for grades K-5. The curriculum didn’t exist yet, but the district had a plan to use an outside consultant to build it. The board had no authority within the law to vote to adopt a curriculum that didn’t exist, let alone one that hadn’t been reviewed by parents and the public.

Beaverton’s experience isn’t an isolated case when it comes to taking shortcuts that cuts out parents and the public. In Beaverton’s case, the school district began their work on a new curriculum in 2020, but when they presented their very lengthy report to the school board on May 23, 2022, it was lacking most of the components of a curriculum for grades K-5. Presented was an optional 2021 Social Science standards and a created student-friendly learning targets with a draft book list by grade level.



The intent was to have an outside consultant, Dr. Katy Swalwell, author of Social Studies for a Better World: An Anti-Oppressive Approach for Elementary Educators, which expresses her desire to transform children to take on a particular viewpoint for a “better world”. She is outspoken about her disgust for things like the constitution, Christianity, the Founding Fathers, White people, capitalism, the police, and her book is part of the recommended professional development readings for teachers.

Myers said, "that’s all they had done when they presented their final report and recommendations to the school board. And on the June 21, 2022 meeting the school board voted unanimously to approve and adopt the “curriculum” that didn’t really exist."

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Myers reports, “The school board received no units, lessons, activities, assessments, scope or sequence, student-facing material, or teacher guides… they had nothing but learning targets and draft book lists. Worse yet, parents and citizens were not given the opportunity to review the curriculum required by law. Beaverton School District may try to argue that they had parents and community members as part of their project team and that the team did get the chance to vote to finalize their work. Even if that is adequate parent involvement, what were they basing their votes on when the elementary curriculum didn’t yet exist?”

“According to the Oregon law and rule, the school district should have created the curriculum first, then solicited parents and citizens for feedback, and then taken the final step to request board approval. The district completely failed to follow the laws & rules governing this process as did the school board.”

“The unit content rolled out to kindergarten classrooms so far, is not at all developmentally appropriate for that age/grade. That’s not just coming from me,” Myers said, “but from teachers inside and outside of the district who have reviewed the material. For some reason, they have incorporated lessons for the health standards into this Social Science unit. I am specifically referring to lessons/activities regarding “consent” and “gender identity,” which are not in the Social Science standards, let alone for 5-year-olds! This is especially troubling since the district is required by law to notify parents ahead of teaching the health curriculum so they can review the curriculum and opt their children out if they so choose.”

School districts are using the pandemic as an excuse to never implement the 2018 standards and instead wait just long enough for these optional 2021 standards to arrive. And even with all the warnings provided by ODE on using these standards and the complete lack of support provided for them, ODE still created curriculum options, which is encouraging school districts to use them.

In the Beaverton's case, Myers wants to stop the use of all the new Social Science units and materials in grades K-5 and return to last year’s content to allow a small project team to select and recommend to the school board a Social Science curriculum from the State Board of Education’s approved list for the 2018 standards.

School boards must be attentive to violating laws when adding diversity and identity lessons into unrelated subjects - they may be violating additional laws and rules and potentially opening the door to lawsuits.

Oregon Abigail Adams Voter Education Project lists the candidates and those responding to the survey on their website.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2023-04-26 15:35:49

Last Update: 2023-04-25 14:56:32