What Does It Take To Get A Curriculum In Beaufort County Schools? | Eastern North Carolina Now

What Does It Take To Get A Curriculum In Beaufort County Schools?

BY:  DAVE HUDSON

I attended last night’s School Board meeting and spoke during public comment about the continued lack of an approved social studies curriculum in our county.  I vowed to continue providing public visibility to what is happening in our schools following last year’s School Board elections.  I apologize in advance for the length of this article but feel that it is necessary.  Immediately below are the comments I made when I addressed the School Board:

“I spoke out against the SAVVAS social studies curriculum at the School Board meeting on February 21, 2023.  However, it defies logic that after more than two years we still don’t have an approved social studies curriculum in Beaufort County!  Teachers are creating their own lesson plans, utilizing information they find on the internet and other sources but without an approved curriculum to use as a benchmark.  This leaves room for many issues to arise because we don’t know what our students are being taught or if the curriculum complies with BCS Curriculum Policy.  One case in point, one of my children was being taught a lesson where the information being taught in class was wrong.  They spoke up in class to the teacher that what was being taught was incorrect.  My child knew this and stated so to the teacher because they had been to the location where the historical event took place, had seen it with their own eyes and knew what was being taught was incorrect.  The teacher responded that indeed, my child was correct, but that was how the teacher was required to teach it.  So that makes me wonder what is being taught and why is there still no approved curriculum?  Apparently, the decision was made to table the adoption of the SAVVAS curriculum for a later date.  This most likely happened because the Superintendent got egg on his face for trying to push through a “woke” curriculum with a weak School Board and received more public outcry than was anticipated.  It was probably tabled for a later date when the public wasn’t watching but unfortunately, the decision was made to give up the search completely in order to pursue finding a science curriculum.”

“This whole fiasco is just another example of why DOGE is needed in the public education bureaucracy.  Administrative staff (bureaucracy) at the county, state and federal levels has grown by 88% since 2000.  In the same period, student and teacher levels have only grown by 8%.  That means bureaucracy in education has grown at an excessively higher rate than the folks doing the actual educating in classrooms and students being taught.  We have also seen a continuing decline in school and student performance scores during the same time.  That tells me that the bureaucracy is broken and needs much necessary reform.  The issues with our county curriculum selection process are a perfect case in point.  If Dr. Parker and the BCS staff are incapable of choosing more than one curriculum at a time, what are you actually doing?  It appears to me and most of the public that the bureaucrats at the county level, this weak School Board and the Superintendent https://ofesadev.rcmrd.org/ are incompetent at best or, at worst, don’t actually care about the education our children receive.  It is way past time for all of you to do your job!  Furthermore, it is way past time for this weak, incompetent School Board to hold the Superintendent accountable and provide the oversight and leadership the people of Beaufort County expect from you!  You are failing our teachers, our citizens and most importantly our students.  Shame on you all!  Shame on you!”

Following the public comment period, discussion came up as an agenda item concerning curriculum selection and the timeline required to do so.  Dr. Parker gave an overview of his proposed timeline to research, acquire and implement a science and social studies curriculum. The photo at the end of this article is from his presentation and speaks to that timeline which I’ll describe further.  I apologize for the poor quality of the image, but it was the best of several I was able to obtain from my vantage point at the back of the room.

Dr. Parker believes it is overburdensome to choose two curricula at the same time.  He brought in two other school staff members to explain and defend (toe the party line) his preferred course of action.  The preferred course of action is to find a science curriculum first and then begin the process of getting a new social studies curriculum.  It is possible to do both at the same time, although not advisable in the opinion of the folks providing the information.  If the School Board chooses to only search for one curriculum at a time, the result would be a new science curriculum that would begin being taught around school year 26-27.  After that the social studies curriculum would be chosen but would not be implemented until school year 28-29.  The alternative of choosing both simultaneously would result in both curricula being implemented in school year 27-28 from the best I could tell. Considering we’re already at the end of the first quarter of 2025 and the issue hasn’t been voted upon by the School Board yet, I find it highly unlikely that these timelines are accurate. The conservative members of the school board questioned why this timeline was so drawn out and why BCS staff would not be able to acquire both curricula in a more timely manner.

I’m no expert.  I appreciate everything our hard-working teachers do to provide our children with the best education possible.  However, this doesn’t pass the “smell test” to me and leads me to wonder what the bureaucrats at the county level are really doing.  I’ve discussed this in articles and podcasts which I encourage you to read http://supp.cus.ac.in/ and won’t go into further detail here.  If this doesn’t make sense to you, I ask you to question your elected School Board District representative.  Ask for an explanation, hold them accountable. We deserve better!

I never like to discuss a problem or issue without at least offering a solution.  One solution for the social studies curriculum would be the adoption of the Hillsdale curriculum which is complete with lesson plans and costs absolutely nothing for the county to obtain.  Just throwing that out there for what it's worth.  Thank you for your interest and continued support as we work to make our schools even better.