Andover Schools Approves $110,000 For Social Studies Curriculum

ANDOVER, MA — Andover Public Schools will develop a social studies curriculum that it already paid $92,000 for outside consultants to develop. The school committee approved another $110,000 to develop "One Community One Nation" for grades K to 5 across the district by a vote of 4-1. The new curriculum was developed in two school districts where Superintendent Sheldon Berman once worked, but Berman said he had no financial interest in the decision.

"I have no copyright, no investment, no financial link to anything in this," Berman said during the lengthy discussion before the committee's vote. There is a rumor "out there that I have some financial link, and there isn't any. There isn't any financial investment or financial gain to anyone in my family, or any friend I know, and, in fact, I don't know that there's ever going to be a profit in any of this."

In February, Andover Patch reported that the school system had paid $56,500 to Kurt Wootton and $35,500 to Tina Blythe, who were contracted to run curriculum days for elementary school teachers outlining the implementation of the "One Community, One Nation" social studies curriculum. Blythe was paid a fee of $2,000 per day, while Wootton was paid a flat fee for four, three-day training sessions for teachers.

The $92,000 was just for the consultants and their expenses, and did not include curriculum fees or money spent for teachers to attend the sessions or for substitutes to cover their classes when they overlapped with class time. To implement the program, the school committee approved spending another $110,925, including $40,000 for professional development providers and $28,475 for substitutes to cover classrooms while teachers are receiving training.

School committee member Tracey Spruce cast the lone vote against adopting the program. She said the high costs and the classroom time lost by elementary school teachers concerned her. "We just made a huge investment to extend our school day to add learning time, and this seems to turn that on its head," Spruce said.

An Andover Public Schools Website outlining "One Community, One Nation" said it was developed in Hudson Public Schools in Massachusetts and the Jefferson County Public Schools, in Louisville, KY. Andover Public Schools Superintendent Sheldon Berman was superintendent of Jefferson County Schools for four years and, before that, superintendent in Hudson for 14 years.

"I think it's a really interesting curriculum. It's a really powerful way to learn," school committee member Shannon Scully said.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).