Open Letter to CUSD Trustees re: Sex Education In Public School

Date: Wednesday February 7, 2018

To: CUSD Board of Trustees

Re: PUBLIC Concerns Over the New Sex Education Curriculum in Public Schools

Dear Trustees:

You were elected by the PEOPLE to represent the interest of Students and Taxpayers in all matters before the Board.

At the next Board meeting you will be asked to approve a new health curriculum that is not age appropriate and contains content that can expose students to social, emotional and physical harm.

Teen Talk assumes that all middle school students are sexually active.

Teen Talk is seductive, not educational.

Teen Talk is to graphic and not "age appropriate".

Parents or guardians, should be notified when their student will receive controversial sexual health education at their school and be allowed to view the curriculum and other instructional materials prior to instruction. CUSD is making it impossible for working parents to view the curriculum by requiring that a parent come to the District office to view the curriculum. The curriculum should be made available on line for Public viewing.

When the District makes Health a requirement to graduate and has Teen Talk as the required curriculum how can a student "OPT OUT" and still complete the Health requirement so that they are eligible to graduate?

Documents released by Trustee Reardon show that it is Staff's recommendation that Health remain a required class for graduation and that this curriculum be taught in ALL GRADES not just 7th and 8th.

I would urge Trustees to eliminate Health as a stand alone class required for graduation. Embed the minimum required Health curriculum in another class such as PE or Tutorial to avoid the more controversial aspects of Teen Talk upon which this curriculum is based.

"Local Control" allows individual school districts to determine if Health should be a graduation requirement. The State of California does not make Health a graduation requirement. See: California Department of Education Minimum Course Requirements

CUSD currently requires all students to take CCP and Health as stand alone class required for graduation. Together CCP/Health waste an entire block of study which places a substantial burden on CUSD's highest achieving students, by impacting their schedules with a meaningless year long class. This curriculum choice; which is unique to CUSD, has forced every student who plans to attend a 4-year college or University to take two years of summer school in order to complete their A-G course requirements.

CUSDs A-G completion rates are substantially lower then they should be. Only 54.4% of students graduating from CUSD will have completed the courses they need to be accepted into a 4- year college or university. 45.6% of students graduating from CUSD will have no choice but to get a job or attend community college.

December 14, 2016 CUSD BOT Meeting Agenda Item #33 INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS RECOMMENDED FOR PILOT" SECONDARY SEXUAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION, GRADE 7-8

The Board Meeting Audio is posted: http://cusd.capousd.org/cusdweb/audio2016-17/CUSDBoardMeeting.Dec.14.2016.mp3 at 148:21

TRUSTEE COMMENTS

at 1:53:00 Trustee Reardon: Has this material actually been reviewed by the IMRC Instructional Materials Review Committee?

at 153:09 Trustee McNicholas: I am on that Committee and I have not seen it.

at 1:53:14 Trustee Reardon: Was it presented to the Committee?

at at 1:53:16 Trustee McNicholas: I believe so, but I have been derelict in my duties.

* The Board Agenda states that it was submitted to the IMRC but Staff would not confirm that.

at 1:53:27 Trustee Reardon: There are two Board Delegates (Trustee Hatton-Hodson is absent)

at 153:27 Trustee Reardon- 2nd question. Can you provide clarification on the part of the act that requires parent notification and give us some assurance that Parents will have the option to Opt Out of the Pilot.

at 153:56 Dr Holiday assures Trustees that parents will be given notice and have the ability to Opt Out.

at 154:08 Trustee Hanacek: I hope parents don't Opt Out and allow their children to be informed and educated. We have bullying everyday.

at 154:53 Trustee Reardon: The Bargain that the Legislature struck to get these materials into the classroom was that parents would have the ability to Opt Out. We must honor that commitment to parents.

VOTE

at 155:16 Motion by Trustee Reardon to adopt the Pilot with assurances that Parents would be given notice and the ability to Opt Out. Second by Trustee Hanacek.

Motion Passed 6-0-1

Look at this timeline - why is CUSD implementing this curriculum before the First 60-day public review which is scheduled to be April - June 2018?

Schedule of Significant Events for the 2019 Revision of the Health Education Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve. Approved by the State Board of Education on September 9, 2016.

Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) approves Schedule of Significant Events and Curriculum Framework and Evaluation Criteria Committee (CFCC) Application

June 20, 2016

Focus Group recruitment letter and application distributed to districts, health education and stakeholder organizations, and institutes of higher education

July 2016

State Board of Education (SBE) approves Schedule of Significant Events and CFCC Application (pursuant to 5 CCR, §9513)

September 9, 2016

Recruitment of CFCC (at least 90 days pursuant to 5 CCR, §9513)

September/October–December 2016

Superintendent appoints Focus Group members

October 2016

Four Focus Group meetings (pursuant to 5 CCR §9511[c])

• November 1, 2016: Tulare County Office of Education, Visalia
• November 7, Sacramento County Office of Education, Sacramento, and via videoconference at Siskiyou and Butte County Offices of Education
• November 15, Alameda County Office of Education, Hayward
• November 29, Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach

November 2016

IQC reviews Focus Group Report and recommends CFCC members and guidelines for the revision of the framework to the SBE

January 2017

SBE appoints CFCC, receives Focus Group Report, and approves guidelines for the revision of the framework

March 2017

CFCC Meetings

The following meeting dates are scheduled to be held in Sacramento:

• May 4–5, 2017
• June 19–20, 2017
• August 10–11, 2017
• September 18–19, 2017
• November 29–30, 2017
• January 25–26, 2018

May 2017–January 2018

IQC approves draft Health Education Framework for initial 60-day public review period

March 2018

First 60-day public review of the Health Education Framework(pursuant to §9515[a][3])

April–June 2018

Health Subject Matter Committee (SMC) analyzes field review results and edits draft framework

August 2018

IQC approves draft Health Education Framework for second 60-day public review period and recommends draft Health Education Framework to SBE

September 2018

Second 60-day public review of the Health Education Framework(pursuant to §9515[c])

November 2018–January 2019

Health SMC/IQC review comments from the second 60-day public review period and recommends final edits to the Health Education Framework for SBE adoption in May

March 2019

SBE action to adopt the Health Education Framework

May 2019

Planned Parenthood is promoting this Program.