Toms River School Board To Revisit Mandated Curriculum Policy

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional Board of Education is revisiting a state-mandated curriculum policy that it rejected in October — a rejection that put the district out of compliance with state law.

The board on Wednesday night introduced on first reading policy 2422, Comprehensive Health and Physical Education.

It is the same policy the board rejected at the Oct. 20 meeting because of objections board members had about the LGBTQ diversity and inclusion requirements and to new requirements regarding sex education.

Get local news updates delivered to your inbox. Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters here.

While the policy was reintroduced, its passage on second reading is not guaranteed. Board member Lisa Contessa, who chairs the policy committee, voted yes but noted it was on first reading, and board member Ashley Palmiere voted no to introduce the policy.

The state Department of Education says the district cannot opt out of the curriculum requirements, which are mandated by state law.

"The inclusion of such material is not optional," a department spokesman said in an email to Patch.

The policy was on the agenda for approval at the Oct. 20 meeting because it was being amended to add diversity and inclusion and sex education requirements, which were mandated by a state law passed in 2020. Those curriculum requirements initially were supposed to be implemented for this fall, but the state Department of Education delayed implementation for a year. The proposed policy is included at the bottom of this article.

In rejecting the policy in October, the school board also rejected previously approved policy mandates — including ones that provided for recess for elementary school students, financial literacy education, suicide prevention education, accident and fire prevention, and education on New Jersey's Safe Haven Infant Protection Act, which aims to make sure high school students know there are places they can safely and anonymously turn over a baby that they do not want.

What drew the biggest objections at the Oct. 20 meeting, were the parts of the policy that mandate inclusion of the historic and economic contributions of LGBTQ people, African Americans, and disabled people, and diversity and inclusion.

The school district administration gave a presentation on the diversity and inclusion element on Wednesday night to try to alleviate some concerns.

The requirements were the result of state laws passed in prior years, and already were part of the board-approved policy, as those curriculum requirements had to be implemented two years ago.

Board member Lisa Contessa, who chairs the policy committee, presented the policy to the board for the second reading and vote, then voted no on the policy.

"I voted no because we need a lot more discussion around this," Contessa said after the Oct. 20 vote. "I want to make sure that in both the health and PE policies and curriculum there is nothing perverse being forced on our children under the guise of equity and tolerance."

Warren Crosby, a parent who attended the meeting, dug through the district's curriculum and pulled photos from an external website that was linked deep in a curriculum document to accuse the board and the district of using the LGBTQ curriculum to expose children to pornography.

"I don't want any more voting on broad LGBTQ agenda items because it's not about LGBTQ people," he said. "It's coming under the auspices of LGBTQ and you're exposing small children 10 and 11 years old to sexually explicit content."

A spokesman for the state Department of Education said in an email that the Toms River school district has to comply with the state's curriculum laws.

"N.J.S. A. 18A:35-4.35 requires all boards of education to include instruction on political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, in an appropriate place in the curriculum of middle school and high school students as part of the district’s implementation of New Jersey Student Learning Standards," the spokesman said. "The inclusion of such material is not optional."

"It is the responsibility of each school district board of education to adopt curricula aligned to state standards and requirements. The NJDOE posted resources to help school districts implement state statute, 18A:35-4.35, online here: https://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/resources/educators/," the spokesman said.

The language addressing those topics specifically reads as follows, and can be found in the document below:

17. History of Disabled and LGBT Persons (N.J.S.A. 18A:35-4.35 and 4.36) requires instruction on the political, economic and social contribution of persons with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people for middle and high school students.

20. Curriculum to Include Instruction on Diversity and Inclusion (N.J.S.A. 18A:35-4.36a) requires instruction on diversity and inclusion in an appropriate place in the curriculum for students in grades kindergarten through twelve.

24. Infusion of African American Accomplishments into school curricula (N.J.S.A. 18A:35-4.43) requires in the curriculum for all elementary and secondary students instruction that infuses into all courses on the United States the centuries of accomplishments by African Americans in the building and development of America.

Toms River Schools Comprehensive Health PE Policy by Karen Wall on Scribd