Religion complaint deadlocks Gilman board

Tasked with determining whether or not to follow the recommendation of the Complaint Procedure Committee to leave the CKLA curriculum as is, the Gilman School Board was deadlocked during two attempts to vote on Monday.

On Jan. 6, the Complaint Procedure Committee comprised of board member Valerie Kulesa, teacher Holly Bacha, teacher Lori Brenner and parent Jeannie Entrekin voted three to one to keep the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) curriculum in tact rather than remove the instruction about world religions. The committee gathered after parents Jacob and Emily Doro filed a complaint when their second grader was introduced to Buddhism and Hinduism as a part of world culture studies involving the indigenous people of the Indus River Valley, India.

An additional member of the Complaint Procedure Committee did not manage to go through all the material provided by the school and the Doro family in the time provided, so they did not take part in the committee’s deliberations or decision.

During the citizen’s forum portion of the regular school board meeting on Jan. 20, the Doros returned to appeal the decision of the Complaint Procedure Committee, stating that they did not believe the committee did their due diligence or fully utilize the available resources and therefore should not have been allowed to vote on the topic. At that time, the Doros asked the school board to make the decision themselves rather than bring it to a committee. As the item was not on the agenda

See GILMAN on page 10 that day, the board had to bring it back as an agenda item on Monday, Feb. 17.

During this week’s regular board meeting, Emily Doro told the board that she and her husband asked themselves, “Would we be here and concerned if this curriculum was about Christianity?

“What we decided is that this curriculum is about Christianity,” Emily said. “It has Christianity in it. Say for example if it was only Christianity, obviously that would have made more sense since that is the religion this country, that we live choose to live in, that we reside in, was founded on.”

She cited works by Erik Erikson, a German- American developmental psychologist (1902-1994) who developed the concept of the eight stages of human development. Emily specifically discussed the fourth stage, or the school age stage, which consists of ages six to 11. She read, “A child’s brain can’t fathom personal identity, a sense of self, until adolescence, 12 or 18.

“When a child’s brain reaches maturity and growth at about 12 years old, a strong sense of self can begin. That identity begins in the home before it can expand to their village, town, township, city, county, state, country, then other countries,” she continued to read.

“We just wanted to really stress that the material is not appropriate for the level of maturity of the students,” said Emily.

Zion Lutheran Church of Gilman Pastor Brian Beardsley stood up in support of the Doros. Beardsley appeared to take issue with the semantics of the CKLA lesson that introduces three of the main religions of the world (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and how that teaching states that Mary and Joseph were going to have a baby, not Mary and God, which he interprets to understand that the CKLA curriculum authors were teaching theology.

“One of the foundations of the Christian faith, no matter what denomination, is true Christians believe that Jesus’ father was God, not Joseph, and if Jesus’ father is not God there is no way he can save us from our sin or save the world from our sin,” said Beardsley. “Even without intentionally doing this, you’re attacking Christianity by teaching things like that.

“You shouldn’t be messing around with this, alright?” Beardsley stated. “They talked about the glories of the Aztecs and the glories of the Maya and the glories of the Inca, you know all three of those religions practiced human sacrifice?”

Gilman resident Ed Hendzel also stood up in support of the Doros, stating that he believes the curriculum should be taught in middle school or beyond. Hendzel also reported that the CKLA curriculum was created by E.D. Hirsch, who he states described himself as “practically a socialist.”

The board was required to vote to decide if they would accept the original recommendation of the committee and maintain the curriculum with students and their families having the option of alternative or if they would move forward with reviewing the curriculum.

“I don’t think it’s fair to the Doros that they came in and one of the board members weren’t there,” said board member Phillip Grunseth who then clarified that he meant one of the members of the Complaint Procedure Committee. “I did talk to some teachers and they did feel like it was taught more as a culture thing, but I feel like they should have their due process.”

“I would not want my children or grandchildren being taught this either,” said member Lynn Rosemeyer. “I was not aware that that was what we were teaching.”

Board president Cheryl Ustianowski confirmed that all children are allowed to step out and be provided alternative learning material, which was agreed upon by other board members.

Vice president Darrell Thompson reiterated that several types of religion are being introduced as part of world studies.

“I hate to put a price on any of it, but we spent $57,000 on the curriculum, if we were to get rid of it that’s going to cost us another $60,000 for new curriculum,” added Ustianowski.

After voting and remaining deadlocked twice, with Kulesa, Thompson, and Ustianowski voting to leave the curriculum as is and Grunseth, Rosemeyer and treasurer Jessica Wisocky voting to take a second look at the curriculum, the board agreed to vote again at the next board meeting as clerk Lauren Zach, who was absent during this week’s meeting, will be present and could present a tiebreaker.

Additionally, the board heard from District Administrator Walter Leipart as he brought up the executive orders that are currently affecting the Department of Education and how things such as section 504 plans, which are plans that outline accommodations for students with disabilities, may no longer be eligible for federal funding.

Leipart stated that state may be handed a block grant from the federal government which the state can then use wherever it decides as long as its on education.

“I think we need to be aware of what are the possibilities of things that could happen.” Leipart reported that the Department of Education at both the state and federal level received a memo on Monday that stated the government would be looking at all aspects of inclusion in the school.

“It’s not DEI,” said Leipart, “It’s not diversity, equity and inclusion put together, it’s anywhere that there’s the word ‘diversity,’ anywhere that there’s the word ‘equity,’ anywhere that there’s the word ‘inclusion,’ and they’re going in there and they’re looking at those funds.”

Leipart stated that funds used to help new teachers become acclimated in the classroom and provide them with access to mentors, especially those in special education, are frozen.

“That inclusion actually is about how do we include our special ed student population into the regular education environment,” said Leipart.

Leipart also continued to prepare the board for a referendum due to the significant drop in state aid which will occur because property value in the Gilman area has gone up.

“We do anticipate about $125,000 deficit for next year which is approximately $75,000 more than we anticipated when we went to referendum three years ago,” said Leipart. “Without passing a referendum, our local levy increases each one of those years while our deficit increases at the same time,” he stated of projections of each school year as far out as 2029-2030.

In addition to a referendum, Leipart intends to implement budget reductions based on priority-based budgeting practices with putting direct student services and essential programs as a priority. He will also save by attrition, meaning that when a teacher or staff member leaves the school will try to absorb the position rather than rehiring.

“A teacher leaves, especially with a high salary, that’s anywhere from $90,000 to $110,000 that you can save right there without laying anybody off,” said Leipart.

In other action, the board also:

• Heard from Leipart that he’s been communicating with Riteway Transportation to fill the empty bus route next school year left by Chuck Szemraj who will be retiring. Leipart reported that Riteway will train staff as bus drivers for free, and then pay them as drivers while they’re also filling other roles. “You have a baseball coach that gets their bus drivers’ license,” said Leipart as an example, “they’re going to be there for the coaching, but they’re getting paid by the hour by Riteway while they’re coaching.'

• Accepted the resignations of special education paraprofessional Lauren Hernandez and kitchen support staff Shawna Whelihan. Leipart reports that he will not be filling Hernandez’s position as he has been able to shift staff to cover it.

• Heard that the gym floor project will begin on June 2.

• Heard from Principal Phil Tallman that tardies have declined since the implementation of the new tardy program which gives students more serious consequences for being late to class.

• Heard notice of write-in for candidate election of a board member. The deadline for this is Friday, March 28 at 12 p.m.