[Update 11/28/23: After the initial GazetteLeader article was posted online, Arlington school officials opted to move a vote on proposed changes to the sex-ed curriculum from the School Board's "consent agenda" back onto the regular agenda for Nov. 30, which will give both board members and the public a chance to comment before a vote is taken.]
Original story, 11/27/23:
Those hoping for one more chance to lobby the Arlington School Board on proposed changes to the school system’s sex-ed curriculum likely will come up empty on Nov. 30.
The policy change, which picked up a number of public speakers when it was introduced several weeks ago, has been placed on the School Board’s “consent agenda.”
If that decision sticks – it may or may not – the only chance speakers will have to weigh in on the matter will be during the board meeting’s public-comment period. And that comes after the consent agenda is adopted.
The proposal before the School Board on Nov. 30 has been modified in several respects from the Nov. 9 School Board meeting, when it was introduced for board and public consumption.
At that meeting, a school official said the package of changes was “not as consequential as it may seem,” but that view was derided as “incoherent” by one of those who came to speak at the hearing.
Reviews of the school system’s sex-ed policies come once every five years. This time around, members of the school system’s School Health Advisory Board (SHAB) recommended that the policy keep in place the option for gender-separate classes.
“SHAB’s membership voiced a variety of viewpoints and reasoning, yet the common theme emerged for keeping gender-separate classes. That recommendation was approved unanimously,” said James Vell Rives, a parent and former School Board candidate, speaking at the Nov. 9 meeting.
School officials responded that gender-specific sex-ed classes had been done away with several years before, but did not provide the specifics sought by several speakers.
Critics also have zeroed in on changes that seem to equate long-term unmarried relationships with marriage, with changes to whether teachers can demonstrate contraception techniques, and with a proposal to eliminate the ability of parents to review materials for classroom use that are copyrighted.
“All of these changes . . . are going to make parents more likely to opt their children out of FLE [family-life education] or out of APS,” said Norma Zarrate, the parent of county students, at the Nov. 9 meeting.
“Arlington should have an FLE program that parents want their children to hear, where parents want to support the teachers and partner with them in their child’s education,” she said.
