Mahomet-Seymour School Board member Colleen Schultz presented the first reading of a new board policy that establishes the way curriculum is approved.
Schultz read: “Curriculum and curriculum revisions will not be adopted at the board meeting they’re first introduced. Furthermore consideration will be given subsequent meetings after the opportunity for community input. In order to provide the opportunity for community input, the superintendent will notify parents and guardians of any proposed curriculum or curriculum revisions, including providing public access to such proposed revisions, a minimum of 30 days, before a final vote will be taken by the board.”
The policy would set the standard for a practice that Director of Curriculum Nicole Rummel says is already in place.
“My intention here is that this is just to reflect what we say our practices are, just to formalize it,” Schultz said.
The proposal was just a starting point for a discussion among the seven board members.
“I just want us to develop it together,” she added.
Some issues that may have been worked out at the June meeting are reducing the number of days for display down to 20 days, in case a grant or funding arises with short notice.
The district has set a schedule to review certain areas of the district curriculum, for example, Math or English, each year. Many times, though, the district may adopt books or other educational materials that align with the curriculum, but do not come before the board.
The distinction between classroom materials and the curriculum was made at the board meeting when community members read from books that were approved within the consent agenda at the Jan. 19 board meeting, but not given to the public.
Rummel said a lot of those books were to be used in Lit. circles. She added that she didn’t want to get into the habit of having to approve everything that is used in every class.
Board member Sunny McMurry said that approving books for guided reading groups at the lower levels would “be a nightmare,” but board member Max McComb said that the board needs to “do something.”
McComb said that he’d like to see the board and staff to think about the policy, which in general he was in favor of, and bring it back to the board.
