During the Northampton School Board meeting on Monday, Feb. 10, directors discussed eliminating Policy 823: Educational Equity and performing an extensive review of the district’s curriculum to prevent a potential loss of federal funds after President Donald J. Trump issued several executive orders aiming to end federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and preferences.
In sum, the Jan. 29 executive order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” focuses on promoting patriotic education, protecting parental rights and eliminating federal support for what it describes as discriminatory or anti-American ideologies in K-12 schools, while emphasizing the importance of national unity, individual merit and parental authority in education while opposing curricula or practices it views as divisive or harmful.
The order’s “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” states that within 90 days, the secretary of education, the secretary of defense and the secretary of health and human services shall provide the president with recommendations and a plan for eliminating federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including that which is based on gender ideology, which is the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex, and discriminatory equity ideology, which refers to an ideology that “treats individuals as members of a preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit and capability in favor of immoral generalizations.”
Furthermore, the order requests that the “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” contain a summary, analysis and prevention plan of all federal funding sources and streams that directly or indirectly support or subsidize the instruction, advancement or promotion of gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology in K-12 curriculum, instruction, programs or activities and K-12 teacher education, certification, licensing, employment or training.
In response to Trump’s executive orders, the Department of Education swiftly took action to eliminate DEI initiatives including removing hundreds of guidance documents, reports and training materials that mention DEI, canceling ongoing DEI training and service contracts that total over $2.6 million and cutting over $600 million in grants to institutions and non-profits that were using taxpayer funds to train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies on Critical Race Theory, DEI, social justice activism, anti-racism and instruction on white privilege and white supremacy.
Then, on Feb. 14, the Department of Education sent a letter to all preschool, elementary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions, as well as state educational agencies that receive federal funding, notifying them that the Department plans to take appropriate measures to assess compliance with the applicable statutes, regulations and antidiscrimination requirements within two weeks (Feb. 28) or they will risk losing their federal funding.
Therefore, the school board’s policy on educational equity was on the chopping block.
Policy 832: Educational Equity’s stated purpose is to prioritize the principle of educational equity through the fair and just allocation of resources, opportunities and treatment of students based upon each individual student’s needs. The policy’s guidelines include provisions for multiple pathways to success/high expectations, access to equitable resources, welcoming and inclusive environments, partnerships and inclusion, cultural proficiency, workforce diversity and professional development.
When asked for his opinion on the removal of the policy, Solicitor Eric Filer stated that the policy is not a requirement under any statute.
During discussion, Director Michael Baird opined that the board should wait to let the issue “play out in the courts” before overreacting. Baird also voiced concerns about how the removal of the policy would affect the students it was put in place to protect, such as students with disabilities and students in special education.
During public comment, 2023 Northampton Area High School graduate Parker Flamisch, who recently announced his campaign for the Northampton School Board, questioned how much the extensive curriculum review would cost the district and how much it will increase the district’s $6.2 million projected 2025-26 budget deficit by.
President Kristin Soldridge stated: “This executive order pretty much states that if you are receiving federal funding and that federal funding is going towards any type of curriculum that discusses DEI, … that you will lose that funding. Our district receives funding from the federal government and in order for us not to lose it, I felt that this was important that … we remove Policy 832.”
However, Director John Becker voiced concerns with the removal, stating, “If we believe all students should be treated equally, then why would we remove this policy?”
“I think everybody’s created equal and I think that all our students should be treated equally, and it especially affects the special needs students, the IEP students; they weren’t always treated equally. Sometimes they were shoved in rooms in the corner of a building somewhere all piled together. Now we must treat them equally, and I don’t see why we should remove a policy that encourages us to treat students equally,” Becker added.
Director Kim Bretzik responded, “In our definition of the policy, it says it’s the fair and just allocation of resources, opportunities and treatment of students based upon each individual student’s needs. Now, this district has 5,000 students. … It is not equipped to deliver individualized education to every one of 5,000 students.”
Soldridge reiterated that she would rather be proactive than reactive about the issue in order to prevent potentially losing $1.7 million in federal funding that the district is relying on.
Vaughn then stated that he agrees with the sentiment that everyone should be treated equally in an “altruistic way in the utopia, but that’s not what exists. That’s why policies are required, … because you need to have a standard that people will achieve or are held to. And to throw away a policy that states that we should treat everybody equally, I think is wrong.”
Solicitor Filer also clarified, “Title IX, Title VI and Title VII are still in effect and valid federal laws, and the school district’s discrimination policies are not what’s being at issue there. … Those are still in effect. So, we’re not getting rid of anything that allows for discrimination.”
Vaughn made a motion to remove Policy 832 and direct the Policy Committee to create a new policy in regard to equity, which passed with one dissenting vote from Director Ross Makary.
Makary then made a motion to table the motion listed under curriculum to authorize the administration to do an extensive review of all curriculum and remove all items including lessons, worksheets, practices, games, table top examples, discussions, etc., that relate to the prohibited topics discussed in the executive orders until the district has an understanding of the financial costs associated with this and Vaughn seconded the motion.
Several board members raised questions about the cost of the proposed curriculum review and how long it would take.
Assistant Superintendent Michelle Schoeneberger explained, “To do an extensive review as it’s described here, we would need to know what the parameters and expectations are, what criteria that we’re looking for with all of these things. There’s also professional development and … some of the state required trainings may be in conflict with the executive orders, so we would have to work on navigating that as well. So, there’s just some other pieces that need to be teased out before we could put together kind of what the scope of the work would look like and the cost.”
Alternatively, Filer posited that the board could table the motion until more information is made available by the Department of Education.
The board unanimously approved the motion to table the curriculum review.
The next Northampton School Board meeting will be held on Monday, March 10 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium, located at 1619 Laubach Ave.
