Parents push back on Bucks County district's curriculum plan

Parents in one Bucks County community aren't holding back on their distaste for the Pennridge School District's recent moves to retool it's curriculum to be more in-line with educational tenets espoused by far-right extremist groups. They let the school board know their feelings at a recent meeting.

Vermilion Education -- the group brought in as a contractor to overhaul the district's curriculum -- has ties to the far-right stemming from Jordan Adams, the company's CEO.

Adams is a graduate and former employee of Hillsdale College, a conservative, Christian school in Michigan that created a controversial 1776 curriculum plan that has been accused of "whitewashing" American history. Adams has said Vermilion Education has no ties to Hillsdale College.

How did Pennridge schools get here?

For some context, the Pennridge School District has been going through some turbulence since last year.

Earlier this year, the board cut requirements for social studies education, before bringing in the consulting company, Vermilion Education, with only 24 hours of notice to the public -- the minimum permitted by law.

The agreement in hiring Vermilion -- at a cost of $125 per hour -- is open ended, meaning there could be no limit to what the plan could cost the district, and ultimately, taxpayers.

School officials and parents have expressed concerns with the district's hiring of Vermilion Education as the company has only existed for about six months and -- after a failed attempt to retool a school curriculum in Florida -- Pennridge would be the company's first school board client.

Unveiling the plan

During a six-hour long meeting on Tuesday (June 20, 2023), Adams had a chance to defend his company's intentions and present his plan for overhauling the district's curriculum.

It did not go well.

Attending the meeting remotely, Adams presented a PowerPoint plan that would, among other things, attempt to change English language education for 7th and 8th graders as well as Social Studies for children in 9th grade and grades 1 through 5.

For examples of changes for English education, Adams said he'd like to see reading materials changed to remove texts that could lead to destructive behavior from students, establish a policy to determine whether mental health education and resources should be considered as part of English arts education and ensure all texts are "free of sexualized content."

In providing an example of "opportunities to strengthen curriculum" by removing texts with sexualized content, Adams pointed to a passage in a book entitled "War and Watermelon," a coming-of-age story set in the 60s, where the main character -- a teen boy -- describes girls not wearing bras and watches girls swimming at a pool.

"My main question, it still goes back to, is are those types of passages and those experiences the things that we want to deposit into students at this grade level?" Adams asked after a member of the audience pushed back on his suggestion to remove books from the current curriculum.

Social Studies content would see more of a focus on American history, as well as a suggestion to ensure first graders learn more about the "Ancient Near East."

Parents and officials pushback

"You guys are going to give this guy a charge to completely overhaul K through 12 Social Studies and God knows what else and we are supposed to believe what you guys are saying?" questioned one parent. "I have never seen so much incompetence from this board leadership than I have seen tonight. Unbelievable."

Board members also had issues with Adam's plan.

Board member Joan Cullen questioned Adams motives, saying it should have been a Social Studies consulting contract, not an effort focused on retooling English and reading initiatives.

"I'm a bit confused," she said. "This is wildly off the path of what it was intended to do."

In a comment that elicited gasps from the audience, she noted that the district had already paid for 60-plus hours of consulting work and his presentation seemed, "like a recitation of what the district is already doing."

The Pennridge School Board held another meeting discussing the curriculum plan Wednesday night.