The Appleton Area School District Board of Education met 05/09/2022. One of the items they took up was the purchase of high school Spanish language and 8th Grade U.S. History materials. This had originally been put on the 04/11/2022 meeting agenda, but then removed and the public feedback period re-opened so that the District could receive more feedback from the community on the materials. Although it was not voted on back in April, the Board did receive a presentation on it.
Steve Harrison, Assistant Superintendent of Assessment, Curriculum & Instruction, reviewed the public feedback they had received on the materials.
The review period for the World Language Spanish Readers went from 03/09/2022 to 04/22/2022. The materials had been made available at both the AASD Welcome Center and the Leadership Center. In total, they received 12 responses all 12 of which were supportive. Those responses also included one question and one comment.
The question had been why they were only purchasing Spanish readers. The answer as that French novels had already been approved and purchased in previous years.
A person also commented that they would like to see World Language instruction begin in kindergarten twice a week. [Given the staffing issues they’ve been experiencing, that seems like a somewhat tall order.]
The overall themes identified from the responses for the Spanish readers was that the material was age appropriate and challenging and that the respondents trusted the world Language staff as experts in that content area.
The feedback period for the 8th Grade U.S. History materials went from 02/25/2022 – 04/22/2022. Overall, they received 24 responses, 22 of which were supportive and 2 that were unsupportive.
The reasons for support ranged from the variety of instructional methods to the use of multiple platforms to being historically accurate to the use of National Geographic as a resource.
The two responses that were not supportive included one comment stating that the text included controversial topics and pertained more to world history that U.S. history and one comment that was not specific to the materials but expressed general concerns about Critical Race Theory.
He opened things up for questions from the Board.
Board member James Bacon asked what kind of questions were on the survey people filled out after reviewing the materials. Did they just check whether they were supportive or unsupportive and then fill out an open field with questions and comments, or were there more specific questions that they responded to?
Assistant Superintendent Harrison said that the feedback form gathered information as to whether the respondent was a resident of Appleton. Beyond that, they basically provided a clear and open slate for people to write out any comments, questions, or thoughts they had about the materials. Historically, AASD really wanted the public feedback periods to provide a very open opportunity to respond without begin guided by specific questions. When the responses were categorized, that was based entirely off of the open-ended statements that respondents had given.
Board member Ed Ruffolo said he knew one of the Spanish books dealt a little bit with mystery and somewhat with horror. It was a high school level class so the material would seem age appropriate, but there might be a student whose family felt the book was possibly too intense. Did they have the option to opt out? He wanted to make sure that if they found the book objectionable that they could decline it.
Assistant Superintendent Harrison said that part of policy 361.1, parents or guardians did always have the option for their student to not use a particular resource. That was limited only to their own student and could not be extended to students they did not have guardianship over, but parents and guardians did always have that option.
Ed asked if there was an English summary for parents who might be interested in understanding the context of the book, given that not everyone speaks Spanish.
Assistant Superintendent Harrison did not know and would have to follow up about that.
Board member Deb Truyman asked how parents would become aware that something was going to be read so that they would know to opt their child out if they so desired.
Assistant Superintendent Harrison responded that that would probably be specific to each teacher, but overall, they could know through classroom communications that teachers make available and through the online portal Canvas. At the high school and middle school level all of the courses are on Canvas so that parent and guardians can see the materials being used. Because all the teachers were using that digital platform, that allowed for a greater amount of transparency regarding the day-to-day operations of what was occurring within the classroom. Canvas showed the different topics within a particular course and the materials being used. Even parents could not see the overall novel on Canvas, they would certainly be able to view the activities being done in class that were related to the novel.
None of the Board members had any further questions and they went on to unanimously approve the purchase of both sets of materials.
View full meeting details here: https://youtu.be/096xAi6Lyd4
View full meeting video here: http://go.boarddocs.com/wi/aasd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CDVMPE5BE62E
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