Carson City school trustees discuss holding one meeting per month, approve new sex education video for high schoolers
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Wed, 12/14/2022 - 3:24pm
On Tuesday, the Carson City School District Board of Trustees discussed changing their meeting schedule from a minimum of two meetings per month to only one meeting per month, approved of a new sex education video for high school students, appointed a member to the Family Life Advisory Committee and more.
Meeting Changes
Meeting organization falls under Bylaw 050, which currently states that boards must select a time, date and location for meetings which must have a minimum of two meetings per month.
The agenda made no mention of wanting to discuss downsizing the meetings to once a month, but rather, stated the purpose of the agenda item was to discuss “amending the bylaw” without indicating what those amendments might be.
However, all trustees were prepared to discuss changing the meeting schedule to only one meeting per month.
Trustee Mike Walker was the first to suggest that the school board only host one meeting a month.
“During COVID one of the things we found is when we use our time efficiently we can get by with one meeting a month. We can consolidate what we’re doing. I’m thinking of our staff.”
Trustee Lauren Crossman suggested that in addition to a one meeting per month schedule, they could host special meetings as needed, such an honoring retiring personnel or celebrating the educator of the year.
Trustee Lupe Ramirez suggested if the meeting does change to once a month, that the meeting start earlier than 7 p.m.
However, Walker stated that going to 6 p.m. would be difficult for members of both trustees or the public at large who might work until 5 p.m., and said 6:30 p.m. could be a compromise.
Trustees agreed that a vote to change the meeting dates from two a month to one a month will be held at the next meeting.
Family Life Advisory Committee
Dan Thornton was reappointed to the Family Life Advisory Committee to serve a three year term through Dec. 2025.
The other applicant, Christine Sylvester, was appointed as a “non-voting alternate,” something that many trustees were concerned about as an alternate position had not been included in the agenda.
At first, Trustee Mike Walker suggested the Sylvester could be appointed as the alternate, and when a parent position became open, she could fill that vacancy.
However, the district’s legal representative Ryan Russel stated that could not be decided during this meeting.
Trustee Joe Cacioppo said he did not want to “front load” the committee appointments, and that doing so would open the board up to public scrutiny.
Trustee Laurel Crossman recommended including the idea of an alternate in an upcoming meeting, as it was not agendized.
Russel stated it would be a “cleaner record” to do so. However, Walker made a motion to appoint Thornton with the caveat that Sylvester be appointed as a non-voting alternate.
“I feel like we didn’t agendize this properly,” said Trustee Stacie Wilke-McCulloch.
Crossman agreed that she also felt uncomfortable about it not being agendized correctly.
Wilke-McCulloch said she “didn’t want an open meeting violation on my last meeting” with the board.
Despite questions around the agenda and a possible open meeting law violation, the board voted to accept Walker’s motion, stating that they trusted Russel’s opinion on the matter.
Sex Ed content approval
A video approved by the Family Life Advisory Council regarding contraceptives will now be included in high school curriculum.
The video and program will be taught by a representative of Carson City Health and Human Services to high school health courses, which discusses what means of birth control are available and how affective they are.
The Trustees voted unanimously to allow the video into the curriculum.
Trustee Walker said he believed the video’s subject matter would be appropriate for middle schoolers as well.
“There are a lot of families who do want the schools to provide sex education, so we need to have information available for those students and families,” Walker said. “For students whose parents want to do that at home that’s totally appropriate, and they can opt out of the system.”
Walker said that the information provided was appropriate for students.
Trustee Richard Varner agreed, stating the video was fact-based and did not include anything graphic.
However, the vote was only on whether or not to include the information in high school curriculum. It is not known what, if any, contraceptive education is taught at the middle school level.
In order to engage with the approved program, trustees stated that parents would have to opt-in to the course, rather than parents who did not wish their students to learn about contraceptives opting out.
The approved video can be viewed here.
