March 14, 2018 CUSD BOT Meeting Agenda Item #22 BOARD PRESENTATION- CALIFORNIA HEALTHY YOUTH ACT

Board Agenda at page 490

Board Audio at 2:52:00 

This is an Information/Discussion Item - No Board Action was taken. (Trustee Pritchard was absent)

The Board is not going to teach Teen Talk. The current curriculum will remain in place for the remainder of this year. For 2018-19 all 7th - 12th grade health instruction will be modified to meeting the mandated content of the law and be respectful of parental rights. 

CUSDWatch Coment:

Sacramento City Unified School District is a great model for CUSD to follow. They do not require Health to be a graduation requirement in high school. HOW DO PARENTS OPT OUT OF A CLASS REQUIRED FOR GRADUATION? Sacramento City Unified embeds the required instruction in Biology. Their OPT OUT for both middle school and high school are perfect. 

Middle School Opt Out Form

High School Opt Out Form

Sacramento City Unified School District Comprehensive Sexual Health Education (California Healthy Youth Act)

In addition the Sacramento City Unified School District is using the approved 3 R's Rights, Respect Responsibility a FREE curriculum when Teen Talk was costing CUSD $145 - $215 per student + Fee Based Training. See: 2016 Adolescent Sexual Health Work Group (ASHWG) Ad-Hoc Curricula Review Group: Summary of Sexual Health Education Curricula Included in Review

When a District requires Health to be a stand alone class required for graduation in high school, then the law requires districts to teach a much broader curriculum that can be taught in all grades K-12.

CUSD should eliminate Health as a graduation requirement.

Parents should OPT OUT of all surveys. CUSD should not be collecting personally identifiable data on the social, emotional, sexual and metal health of students. CUSD should not be sharing that data with "researchers" which include For-Profit-Companies and Activist Organizations.

This law was authored by Assemblymember Shirley Weber and was sponsored by the ACLU of CaliforniaCalifornia Latinas for Reproductive JusticeEquality CaliforniaForward Together and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

CUSD has no control over where that data goes once it is shared.

Sounds like the issue Face Book is currently having.  

 

Board Audio at 2:52:00 Presentation by Joshua Hill, Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction Grades 6-12

Board Audio at 2:56:00 RED FLAG - The California Healthy Youth Act is unique. it was not adopted like other curriculum. It was codified in law and did not go through the normal development of  curriculum frameworks and content standards.

Board Audio at 3:00:30 RED FLAGThe law forbids students to be separated by gender to receive this instruction. Districts cannot presume to know what gender a student is.

Board Audio at 3:04:29 BLUE CARDS: PUBLIC COMMENT

Board Audio at 3:05:04 Jamie Luby Las Flores Middle School Teacher (Supports new curriculum) She is a Trans-women that supports LGBTQ curriculum and its inclusiveness. Old Curriculum- Family Life is outdated.

Board Audio at 3:08:18  Michelle Perreira McNutt, Ladera Ranch Parent. (Supports new curriculum) The California Healthy Youth Act was supported by CSBA, CTA and PTA among others.  Not separating children by gender. Cites a 2015 ACLU Lawsuit: American Academy of Pediatrics et al vs. Clovis Unified School District  where a judge ruled:

“access to medically and socially appropriate sexual education is an important public right.” The court specifically noted that the curriculum used by Clovis Unified School District violated the law “by failing to include the required STD and pregnancy prevention information, by promoting and reinforcing bias in gender and sexual orientation, and by containing medically inaccurate information.”

Students must receive Comprehensive Sex education at least once in middle school and once in high school. CUSD is not compliant with the new law. Parents who don't want to let their kids have this curriculum can OPT OUT, those parents should not prevent my child from having this curriculum.

Board Audio at 3:11:33 Jessica Geyer, Parent of two daughters. (Supports new curriculum). Just as she sends her children to school to learn Math from a credentialed Math teacher. She wants her children to learn Comprehensive Sexual Education from a specially trained teacher. Question: Why hasn't this law been implemented? It went into effect January 1, 2016. It is now March 14, 2018. This is a law. If other parents are not happy with it, contact your State representatives.

"Quality comprehensive sexuality education supports a rights-based approach in which values such as respect, acceptance, tolerance, equality, empathy, and reciprocity are inextricably linked to universally agreed human rights. Comprehensive sex education also provides young people with the opportunity to explore and define their individual values as well as those of their families and communities."

Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 2009

Board Audio at 3:14:44 Lisa Tita 7th Grade Science Teacher at Las Flores Middle School. Also Teacher of the Year. She has been teaching Health for 17 years. (Supports new curriculum) Thrilled with "Teen Talk" curriculum. The old curriculum "Family Life" is old and outdated. We need a new curriculum. The current curriculum calls Sexually transmitted diseases STD's that are now called STI's. We are giving our kids inaccurate information. According to the Orange County Register: Syphilis up 412%, Gonorrhea 204%: Why are Orange County STD rates through the roof? 

"The reasons are complex, but include medical and social factors ranging from a lack of adequate screening to decreased fear of curable sexually transmitted diseases."

We need to give students the information they need to be fearful of.

Board Audio at 3:17:55 Michelle Plossal Campbell (PTSA LedgeRep and Parent- but is not speaking on behalf of the PTSA) (Supports new curriculum). There is a vocal minority who luckily did not show up tonight - reference Dawn Urbanek) This curriculum must be implemented immediately.

Board Audio at 3:19:48 Dawn Urbanek, CUSD Taxpayer and Student Advocate (Left the meeting early and did not speak).

Board Audio at 3:19:50 TRUSTEE COMMENTS

Board Audio at 3:19:59 Trustee Jim Reardon CUSD will teach Health in 7th and 8th grade- How much time will be spent on this curriculum? 

Response Josh Hill: It depends on the Curriculum that is eventually adopted. With "Teen Talk" it would have been 5 hours in 7th grade, and 5 hours in 8th grade. 5 days at the end of Science class once they have completed their testing and curriculum.

Board Audio at 3:21:00 Trustee Jim Reardon So we are going to fit "Teen Talk" into 5 hours of instruction each year?

Response Josh Hill: If "Teen Talk" had been the curriculum that is what was recommended. That will not be the curriculum so it will depend on what curriculum is developed. Teen Talk will not be the curriculum.

Board Audio at 3:21:15 Trustee Martha McNicholas What do we currently teach in each grade?

Response Josh Hill: There are units in 5th grade, 6th grade and 7th grade. Not sure how much time is given to instruction in each of those grade levels.

Board Audio at 3:21:44 Trustee Jim Reardon We are specifically talking about 7th and 8th grade tonight. Does the law require that we teach all the content in both grades, or divide the content between 7th and 8th grade?

Response Josh Hill: The requirement of the law is to teach each of the required topics at least one time in middle school and one time in high school.

Trustee Jim Reardon: So 10 hours over 2 years.

Trustee Martha McNicholas: No 10 hours over 3 years (One time in Middle School and One time in High School)

Trustee Jim Reardon: It does not seem like a high undertaking to revise Teen Talk, or write our own.

Response Josh Hill: We will not have our teachers revise curriculum, we will have professionals work on this curriculum.

Trustee Jim Reardon: He has received lots of e-mails re: Teen Talk (good and bad). One of the criticisms was that the subject matter was presented in the wrong order. The most controversial topics are presented first.

Board Audio at 3:24:54 Trustee Amy Hanacek wishes CUSD was already up and running with Teen Talk. Parents are asking her "Where is their OPT IN". Parents have the right to OPT OUT until they feel more comfortable with the information. The State of California has given school districts permission to get in there and protect and educate students. The more we wait we create Bullys. She thinks Teen Talk is salvageable and that CUSD should start, even if everyone OPTS OUT except for 5 students. Start with the 5 students. Start with Self Esteem and grow from there.

Response Josh Hill: As we reached out to community members - most are OK with what is being taught, they just want more influence on how the material is presented. The fear was is if we had a hard line OPT OUT approach we will loose a lot of students. We will get a lot more students to take the class if we do it in a manner that the community is comfortable with. We need to engage the community in how the curriculum is taught.

Trustee Amy Hanacek: We don't want you to be bogged down- we want you to get started. 

Board Audio at 3:30:04 Student Advisor Max Eunice: CUSD's direction to get community feedback is good. Where are the students?

Trustee Martha McNicholas "They are writing for San Juan Hills" 

Note: See Special Board Meeting Agenda San Juan Hills High School Express News Article "Relationships & Sex in High School"

Student Advisor Max Eunice: Currently there is no High School Sexual Health Education. Students should have a say in the curriculum so that they feel comfortable in the way the material is presented. He read the Teen Talk curriculum and felt it was relevant. Things like the topic of Gender Identity save lives. Max stated that it was his personal experience as an LGBTQ student (really a Q student) it was really uncomfortable during instruction in Family Life picking a side when students were divided by gender. If the instruction is not given it will be learned in other ways. "If a certain individual in my middle school had not realized what I was doing well I may not be here today." We need to educate students. I also agree that the order should be changed so that students learn about themselves first. Comprehensive Sexual education should be about finding out who you are first and then making that presentation to others. Positive Self image first.

Trustee Martha McNicholas: "Is he the smartest person in the room?" 

Board Audio at 3:33:38 Trustee Gila Jones: Ironic that we had Public Comments on San Juan Hills High School Express News Article "Relationships & Sex in High School" when one of the blurbs in that newspaper said Sex class was useless. Kids are interested in Sex as we have seen by these articles. If we don't provide that information something else fills that void. If students had better education early on maybe we would not find articles that we felt were inappropriate or over the top. The Facilities and Finance Committee also encouraged us to work closer with the community and bring them along to pass a bond. I too was concerned we may get to many families OPTING OUT and that could build over time. There is a movement in the community that this is bad. if we did not back pedal a little and bring more people along. Two more things I want to comment on "Age Appropriate" and "Respect". This is not just about - "Oh go choose your gender". No choice is better than another. You don't need to agree with everyone, but you do need to respect a persons choice. This law is about respect Some conservative members of the community have expressed their concern that their kids may not be respected for their view that it is not OK to change your gender. There is not going to be an agreement on what is "Age Appropriate".  But the law is well intentioned. Trustee Jones then relays a personal story about her father and his Gay brother. 

Board Audio at 3:39:32 Trustee Jim Reardon: Many of the emails were concerned about the requirement in the law about "Local Resources" be identified to provide support for students. One of the complaints about Teen Talk was that many of the identified resources were politically oriented. We should identify local resources (community based resources) students might need and limit external references into non-governmental organizations that have political agendas that some people may find objectionable. If we want to keep the curriculum out of the politics, we need too keep the politics out of the curriculum. Teen Talk does not do an adequate job of that. Follow some of the links and you get into some pretty interesting stuff. The law requires the District to offer resources which allow a child in trouble to find resources outside of the home to obtain help. Districts are to train them about their rights to gain access to those resources. We can do that without sending our kids off to the ACLU. These resources need too be vetted. The County has significant resources so maybe we don't need to get to National Organizations that have political agendas. We do not need to have agreement about what is "Age Appropriate". Rather we should talk about what is "Progressively Appropriate".  The order of the units of instruction. In a 7th grade class with 30 kids, 3 or 4 are already sexually active. The next year you will have 10. There is something going on there that is progressive. Ordering this curriculum so that gender identity issues are taught in the first year without first teaching about sexually transmitted disease is inappropriate ordering. Amazed we get get all of this in in 10 hours of instruction.

Board Audio at 3:43:58 Trustee Judy Bullockus: Currently we are talking about 5 hours X 2 once in middle school and once in high school. Do kids learn the exact same thing in each 5 hours or is there a progression or deeper dive in high school? 

Response Josh Hill: This 10 hours was based on Teen Talk. and was 10 hours in middle school. In High School this would be a unit of study in our Health Class which would take 2-3 weeks in terms of one of there classes being Health. The materials would be different for high school than middle school. 

Trustee Jim Reardon: The high school curriculum is NOT Teen Talk, it is something different.

Response Josh Hill: Correct. We currently have a text book that we would need to supplement with additional resources to include Comprehensive Sexualality Education components.

Trustee Judy Bullockus: She wants to see CUSD follow State law but does not want to rush to put something in place so that there are large numbers of people that OPT OUT. Everyone needs to feel confident in what is put together without dragging it out. Clarify the IMRC (Instructional Materials Review Committee). Each Trustee has appointed a member of the Community to represent them on the IMRC.

Response Josh Hill: [The process of curriculum review is discussed]. IMRC reviews materials - once approved there is a 30 day window where the Public can come to the District Office to view the materials and make recommendations before the Board then votes on the curriculum. Only those materials that are deemed worth of review are shared with the public. 

Trustee Judy Bullockus: We are talking about about Teen Talk for middle School, and Health for high school. How does that work for students who take Health online- they will miss the classroom discussion. How do we ensure every child is getting the same education that we are mandated to provide.

Response Josh Hill: Those students who take Health online may be choosing that for the specific family desire to avoid classroom discussion. CUSD is thinking of doing online videos that cover the material which can be viewed at home to ensure that the required content is covered. We recognize that there is always a difference between in class and online instruction; however, we will do our best to see that the content is inclusive.

Trustee Judy Bullockus: CUSD did purchase Teen Talk, we trained teachers. Looking at Fall 2018, CUSD is going to use Teen Talk and adjust it or we are using our original curriculum. 

Response Josh Hill: We are not using Teen Talk. We will continue our original curriculum and up-date that to comply with the law.

Trustee Judy Bullockus: But our original curriculum is so out dated.

Response Josh Hill: Teen Talk will not be taught. We will continue our original curriculum this year and will modify the curriculum for next year.

Trustee Judy Bullockus: The conversation with the CUSD Community will be Teen Talk or what we do to adjust our curriculum to comply with the law.

Response Josh Hill: This is what we have. How do we up-date our existing curriculum to meet the law.

Trustee Judy Bullockus: Teen Talk is a small business and the materials are copyrighted. So we will not be using Teen Talk at all.

Response Josh Hill: We will not use Teen Talk. Many community members have brought materials forward that we can use once our legal team has vetted them.

Trustee Judy Bullockus: I appreciate the in-put from community members, but most importantly for me is the teacher in-put. She is interested in a Teacher focus group.

Response Josh Hill: Teachers will be invited to participate in a focus group as an additional assignment. 

Board Audio at 3:53:45 Trustee Martha McNicholas We need a motion to extend the time of the meeting.

Trustee Pat Holloway Motion to extend the time to 11:30 pm

Second by Trustee Judy Bullockus

Motion passes 6-0-1 (Trustee Pritchard absent)

Board Audio at 5:54:33 Trustee Martha McNicholas: I was at one of the parent nights at Niguel Hills Middle School and we had 15 parents attend. One of the comments there and why people are not showing up is that CUSD advertised this as a discussion of the Healthy Youth Act. People thought we were talking exercise and broccoli. Maybe if CUSD had said SEX ED there would have been greater attendance. If we are trying to get parent in-put then we need to let them know what we are really talking about. It concerns me that we are teaching 20 year old material.

Response Josh Hill: We currently teach HIV prevention only which complies with the law prior to 2016.

Trustee Martha McNicholas: We teach HIV only... ok... well then they need to read the San Juan Hills High School newspaper. 

 

 

 

 

 

CURRICULUM REVIEW OF TEEN TALK 7th and 8th Grade

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Teen-Talk-Middle-School.pdf

Curriculum Reviews for other curriculums:

FLASH

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Flash-Middle-School.pdf

POSITIVE PREVENTION - RIGHTS

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Positive-Prevention-Middle-School.pdf

RIGHTS RESPECT RESPONSIBILITY -High School

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Copy-of-CHYA_finalreport_3RsMS_FINAL_post-2.pdf

Making Proud Choices - California Eddition - Middle School High School

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Making-Proud-Choices-Middle-High-School-1.pdf

 

 

CURRICULUM REVIEW OF TEEN TALK High School

Straightlaced Trailer

https://groundspark.org/straightlaced-trailer

 

March 14, 2018 CUSD BOT Meeting Agenda Item #22 BOARD PRESENTATION- CALIFORNIA HEALTHY YOUTH ACT

Board Agenda at page 490

Board Audio at 2:52:00 

Board Audio at 2:52:00 Presentation by Joshua Hill, Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction Grades 6-12

Board Audio at 2:56:00 RED FLAG - The California Healthy Youth Act is unique- it was not adopted like other curriculum- it was codified in law it did not go through normal curriculum frameworks and content standards.

≈ RED FLAGThe law forbids students to be separated by gender to receive this instruction. Districts cannot presume to know what gender a student is.

Board Audio at 3:04:29 BLUE CARDS: PUBLIC COMMENT

 

 

 

 

 

CURRICULUM REVIEW OF TEEN TALK 7th and 8th Grade

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Teen-Talk-Middle-School.pdf

Curriculum Reviews for other curriculums:

FLASH

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Flash-Middle-School.pdf

POSITIVE PREVENTION - RIGHTS

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Positive-Prevention-Middle-School.pdf

RIGHTS RESPECT RESPONSIBILITY -High School

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Copy-of-CHYA_finalreport_3RsMS_FINAL_post-2.pdf

Making Proud Choices - California Eddition - Middle School High School

http://ashwg.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Making-Proud-Choices-Middle-High-School-1.pdf

 

 

CURRICULUM REVIEW OF TEEN TALK High School

Straightlaced Trailer

https://groundspark.org/straightlaced-trailer