Action of the School Board Action of the School Board 01/12/15 | Page 3

board in June and August. Recommendation one asks the district to increase awareness and
acknowledgement of the variety of family structures and characteristics.
Dr. Jennifer Cherry, Title IX coordinator, said the recommendation emerged from nine
broad recommendations the community task force made in 2013 and refined in 2014. The
subcommittee that brought forward recommendation one suggested the district add questions to the Parent Attitude and Satisfaction Survey (PASS) beginning in May 2015 to determine if all families feel respected and welcome in the district’s schools.
The district’s Anti-bullying/Anti-harassment Leadership Team of staff developed two
items to be added to the survey. If approved by the board, survey participants will be asked
if they agree or disagree with the following statements:
• I feel respected at my student’s school.
• I feel my family is accepted at my student’s school.
Bryan Lindquist, parent member of the task force, noted that if participants do not agree
with the statements they would be asked what the school could do to make them feel more
respected or accepted at their children’s schools.
These questions, the survey process, and plans for use of the data it would generate align
with current practice for the PASS survey. Johnna Rohmer-Hirt, director of research, testing
and evaluation, said the PASS phone survey is administered to a random sample of parents
of approximately one-quarter of the district’s schools each year. The new questions would
also be included in the online/paper PASS survey given annually to all parents.
This item will be brought back to the board for action Jan. 26. The task force’s plan included
five recommendations. Implementation plans for recommendations four and five were
approved in December. Plans for recommendation three will be presented Feb. 23 and those
for recommendation two will be presented Apr. 27.
The presentation is available in its entirety in the Jan. 12 meeting agenda.

Health instructional materials report presented

Dr. Cynthia Hays, chief academic officer, Dr. Jinger Gustafson, associate superintendent for
middle schools, and Ellen Delaney, directory of secondary curriculum, presented a proposal to update materials for health instruction in the middle and high schools. Dr. Gustafson stressed there is no proposal to change the curriculum because it aligns with national
standards and state benchmarks for health. At this time the district is simply planning to
update teacher materials.
In June Gustafson and Delaney recommended making available for teachers only the online
resources provided by Children’s Hospital and updated DVDs that are companions to the
current high school health textbooks. Over the summer and into the fall, the materials were
available for public viewing at a workstation in the district’s media services department.
They were reviewed by the Community Curriculum Advisory Committee and discussed
with the Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee. They were also endorsed by
health teachers.
Gustafson and Delaney had originally proposed involving health teachers in developing a
new health “flex book.” However, they have not been able to find appropriate open source
materials for a flex book. Instead, they will go through the full curriculum review process
next year to consider the latest edition of the district’s current secondary health textbook; it
would not purchased until 2016-17 if it were approved.

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ACTION

At the Jan. 26 board meeting, the board will consider approving purchase of the updated
health DVDs and use of the Health Teacher website of Children’s Hospital. In addition, it
will consider giving approval for a full study of the latest edition of the district’s current