Wednesday
September 18, 2024 
Tuesday’s back-to-back-to-back Pennridge School Board committee meetings took nearly six and a half hours to complete and featured discussion of five hot-button issues, dozens of public comments, bickering among board members, shouts from the audience, threats of lawsuits and accusations of corruption.
“It’s The Twilight Zone,” said East Rockhill resident Ross McLennan during one of his many trips to the podium to offer comment.
From the use of restroom and locker room facilities, how to evaluate the propriety of educational resources, and student surveys during the Policy Committee meeting; to a presentation by controversial consultant Jordan Adams during the Curriculum Committee meeting; to the possible eliminating of four educational supervisor positions during the Personnel Committee meeting, the Grand Canyon-like divides between factions on the board and the board and the community were on full display.
Not a single person in the audience, many of whom remained even as the clock approached 1 a.m., spoke in favor of any of the proposals.
And it was all just a prelude to Wednesday night’s full school board meeting, where many of the same issues likely were expected to be debated again before final decisions are made.
The marathon started with the proposed Restroom and Locker Room Facilities policy, which would require students, staff, and visitors to use the facilities that correspond to their gender assigned at birth. Critics said the policy is not only illegal but would harm transgender students who already feel marginalized in their school.
Jynx Smalls, of Sellersville, who will enter the high school in the fall and identifies as transgender nonbinary wondered why the board would approve a policy “that would make your trans students feel less recognized, appreciated, loved and accounted for. Us trans kids are more scared of you than you are of us. Represent me, support me. You don’t need to hold my hand but don’t slam the door in my face.”
The Policy Committee meeting also featured a discussion about the use of “controversial and third-party” student surveys. The policy would give parents the opportunity at the beginning of the school year to either allow their children to participate in all surveys or to review individual surveys before giving permission to participate.
Also under the Policy discussion were an update to guidelines for how educational resources are reviewed for age-appropriate content. The discussion included a debate over the difference between “sexually explicit” and “erotic” and board member Jordan Blomgren reading an excerpt from “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins depicting child abuse that she said was not flagged for removal by the review committee under the current guidelines.
The Curriculum Committee focused mainly on a presentation by Jordan Adams of Vermilion Education, who was hired by the board in April to assist with reviewing the district’s curriculum. At the time, critics complained the contract was developed in secret and presented to the board at the last minute, that Adams was unqualified to have input on curriculum, and that he would bring a conservative Christian ideology into Pennridge classrooms.
Finally, during the Personnel Committee meeting, members of the audience spoke passionately against eliminating four Curriculum Supervisor positions in favor of hiring more teaching assistants and personal care assistants, who some board members said would have more of a direct effect on student learning.
Board member Ricki Chaikin, who joined the meeting via Zoom, tried to show a presentation positioning Pennridge as an anomaly in Bucks County when it comes to Curriculum Supervisor positions and a correlation with dropping test scores. Trouble with sound caused her to cut the presentation short.
Former elementary school teacher turned Instructional Support Coach Ken Ehrman was among about a dozen educators who panned Chaikin’s presentation while making a passionate case for keeping the Curriculum Supervisor positions.
“I’m appalled at what I’m seeing,” he said. “I am depressed to see the leadership that is here. The fact that you can sit here and watch this data be presented that has no resources, no references…it clearly was wrong. And you’re just going to sit here and do nothing, eliminating four positions that we have clearly demonstrated are valuable. If you put this to a vote, you are making a decision that is bad for our children. Hands down, supervisors are essential. We do not have a bloated administration. I’m all for having an efficient administrative staff. You are making a decision that does not make sense at all.”
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