During their January meeting, Milford School District Board of Education reviewed proposed changes to their curriculum guiding principles policy. According to Dr. Jennifer Hallman, Director of Student Services, this is necessary as the current policy was over 20 years old.
“It has some outdated language, particularly in the area of technology,” Hallman said. “We also need to add a section that is standards aligned and adheres to applicable state and federal laws regarding curriculum. There have been several regulations that have been released that we’ve had to adopt, and they need to be reflected in our policy.”
The policy states that the district will conduct a regular review of instructional materials as necessary to assess the effacy of the curriculum. The changes would remove language based on broad-based representation and involvement of teachers as well as methods for evaluating and changing curriculum based on assessment data.
Curriculum will apply to state and federal laws, while also based on professional learning, state standards, analysis of assessments and evidence-based instruction strategies.
Other changes to curriculum will require administration to determine if updates are necessary and review of any instructional materials be by stakeholder groups which may include parents. Implementation of new curriculum will also involve additional stakeholders which may also include parents.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, one aspect of curriculum was brought up by Patty Maloney, president of Speak Out Against Hate.
“I come here tonight to address SB6103 Controversial Issues and its revision which was at the central point of this past July 15 school board meeting. It was with great relief, although past 10 PM, that the Milford School District voted to table the proposed policy 6103 at the meeting which I and many at the meeting believed was an attempt to infringe upon Milford staff and student’s rights to share the ideas and learn free from censorship,” Maloney said. “What was to occur and stated at the meeting was a task force made up of board members and stakeholders in the community formed to address the revisions in a move to be transparent and report to the community in a timely manner. My question is if the task force has been set up why have we not heard anything of it, its members, their actions or inactions to date. The public deserves to be informed of the task forces’ undertakings as it directly affects what is being taught.”
Maloney requested that the board provide more information about the formation of the task force at an upcoming meeting. During public comment, the board cannot respond to questions and it was not stated during the meeting nor the curriculum discussion whether the task force had been formed.
