Sex ed lessons are headed to review panel in August
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
A panel reviewing the school system’s sex education materials will get its first look at proposed curriculum revisions in late August.
The 15-member panel canceled its past three meetings and has not met since April because it did not have any material to review. Administrators are being careful to vet the material through school system lawyers before presenting it to the panel.
The controversial curriculum will include a lesson on sexual orientation in eighth- and 10th-grade health classes and a video demonstrating condom use to be shown in 10th-grade classes.
Last year, a federal lawsuit blocked the lesson on sexual orientation and led the school system to pull the video from classrooms.
The panel is expected to meet at least once a month in September, October and November, under a timeline outlined by administrators in the memos to the school board and the panel’s chairwoman last week.
Recommendations will be presented to the board in early January. That would keep the school system on track for a spring 2007 field test of the sexual orientation curriculum in eighth grade and for a full rollout of the new lessons during the 2007-2008 school year.
Meal prices increase
The school board has approved raising lunch prices next year by 45 cents to $2.50 in middle and high schools and by 30 cents to $2.25 in elementary schools. Breakfasts will cost 25 cents more, or $1.25.
New student board member
Sarah Horvitz, a rising senior at Silver Spring’s Springbrook High School, will be sworn in as the school board’s student member at 7:30 p.m. today in the Carver Educational Services Center at 850 Hungerford Drive in Rockville.
The board’s next business meeting is set for 10 a.m. July18.
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