School Board Approves 'Updated' Sex Ed Curriculum In Lacey

LACEY, NJ — After months of controversy, the Lacey Township Board of Education voted to approve this school year's curriculum, including sex education.

The Board made "significant revisions" following the August "Listen and Learn" forum, Superintendent Dr. Vanessa Pereira said. Read More: Parents Reject Sex, LGBTQ Education In New Lacey Curriculum

Board members praised the updated curriculum, which was nearly unanimously approved except by Salvatore Armato, who approved all aspects of the curriculum except for the health education.

Board member Kim Klaus, representing the Curriculum Committee, thanked everyone who shared their thoughts about the curriculum as it helped shape it.

"I can personally tell you (fellow board member) Ms. McAvoy and I reviewed and compared line-by-line everything from 2014 to the 2020 standards that we have today," Klaus said. She added that everything that people were concerned about was addressed and taken out or modified.

Even up to the day of the meeting, changes were made. Klaus said that every concern parents had shared was taken into consideration.

"The standards cannot change, but how we write our curriculum can, and that's exactly what we did," Klaus said.

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction William Zylinksi gave a brief presentation highlighting the new curriculum. The full presentation can be found online through Lacey schools.

"We are the most transparent school district in all of Ocean County, if not all New Jersey," Zylinski said.

Zylinksi said that the district posts "everything" online, from standards to resources to vocabulary. The only thing they don't share is individual lesson plans, he said. The curriculum can be found here.

He showed highlights from grade two, grade five and grade eight.

"Yes, there's some language. Yes, there's some vocabulary. Yes, there's a lot of things," Zylinski said. "But you have to understand our community is very soft about presentation. We don't want it to be so harsh. We don't want it to be out of their comfort zone. We don't want it to be certain things."

He assured concerned parents that they spent "a lot of time" picking apart the state's standards and figuring out how the curriculum would work. He again emphasized that the lessons would be "age appropriate."

"It's the right time in the right place," he said.

In second grade, students will learn how to manage hygiene, like brushing their teeth, Zylinski said. They will also learn how families can differ in size and dynamics.

Students in fifth grade will learn about puberty and how reproduction causes pregnancy. In eighth grade, they will learn more about sex, including contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, along with things like stereotyping.

Parents still have the option to opt their children out of the classes if they do not feel comfortable. Zylinski said that the district is working on alternate lessons for those students so they will still be learning something, not sitting in the library or in study hall.

Anyone with further concerns is urged to contact their child's health teacher directly, he said.

But it wasn't enough for some parents, who still voiced their disapproval of the standards.

"We've all asked you numerous times to listen to us and to be transparent," parent Jessica DeLucca told the Board, adding that she removed her children from the district and is now sending them to Catholic school. "But you guys aren't doing that."

Annmarie Leiter said that she did not want someone that she did not know teaching her kids the standards.

"I don't know where they come from," she said. "I don't know if they're going to be as compassionate or as understanding or use a language that my child understands."

The Board said that they would continue to make adjustments as necessary. They encouraged anyone with positive or negative feedback to share it with the Board, Zylinski and Pereira.