School board members give primer on filling out DV’s new curriculum complaint form

The Delaware Valley Curriculum Committee meeting on March 17 was all about how to fill out a form.

The school district’s new curriculum complaint form may be used not only to register complaints about books and subjects being taught in the school district, but also to ask questions or explore ideas.

School board members Pam Lutfy chaired the meeting, which was attended by about 50 people.

Lutfy said no complaint forms had been submitted to date.

JoAnn Strattman, a DV middle school teacher, said she had received only one opt-out by a parent to provide an alternative book to the book End Game. She said parents could ask for alternative assignments if they didn’t want their child to read what was assigned in the curriculum.

One problem is parents not being able to find copies of the textbook they’re interested in looking at. Several parents said they had asked the school and were told none were available.

School board member Jessica Decker said teachers don’t always use complete texts, and may offer additional materials to more fully meet the needs of their students. Parents may put down their concerns and questions on the curriculum complaint form, she said, and the curriculum committee will look at them before passing them on to administrators.

Questions arose about Advanced Placement classes, and how students who did not read the assigned materials would be affected in other high school and college classes.

Decker referred to Superintendent John Bell’s informative Powerpoint presentation, which they said they would look into posting online. Hard copies of the presentation, printed in a tiny font, were available at the meeting.