Goshen School Board further discusses controversial math curriculum

Nov. 15—GOSHEN — A previously discussed math curriculum is under scrutiny with the Goshen Community Schools Board of Trustees. Currently in a free trial period among middle school students, the board was asked to continue the pilot program through the year using the Desmos program.

Board president Bradd Weddell reminded presenters Director of Curriculum and Instruction Tracey Noe, teachers Brandi Sapp and Haly King that during the original presentation they referenced that the platform helps with "injustices in our communities."

"That has raised a lot of concerns," Weddell explained. "I want to believe that all of our teachers have the integrity to do things right, but are there the options within the platform that will allow educators to build it to have an agenda? We want to have no agendas in our schools. We want to be apolitical in how we educate our students. That needs to be left up to the families at home."

He was referencing posts and content created by Desmos in support of various topics, including the About Us section of their webpage, which says "We prioritize equity and accessibility at every level of our work."

"I cannot tell you through last Thursday when (the agenda) got posted, how this has gotten brought up and brought up," Weddell continued. "That is my concern right now."

Noe told him the school system can be successful using the program by sticking state standards, and that the "equity" aspect indicates only that students have equal access to the materials.

"If an EL student can't get into that resource and can't understand it, then we've done an injustice," Noe said. "It's not all the other injustices that we're perceiving around the world. It's 'do they have equal access to understand the resources, the standards the work that needs to be done in that classroom?'"

Weddell said he wants to avoid educators with agendas involving those agendas in the classroom.

Newly elected board member Ryan Glick, of District 1, spoke during the public comment section of the school board meeting on the topic of integrity.

"In the recent campaign, a unified effort was made by city members of this board and one candidate from District 1 to harm my campaign with false and misleading statements and actively go against the plain and clear reading of Indiana election laws," Glick said.

He was commenting on the mailer that was sent to addresses citywide on Oct. 29, which discusses Purple for Parents policies, and indicated that he was related to another candidate. Glick recalled that his first response was to write a Letter to the Editor, and post an article on his own political page about the topic. Days later, GCS board member Allan Kauffman wrote a response to Glick's Letter to the Editor. In his response, Kauffman implied that he'd received the mailer and reviewed the materials, Glick said, implying that Kauffman claimed himself to be a "nonpartisan, unbiased, independent observer."

"I questioned this because I knew that he was Jose Elizalde's campaign manager, a reality he conveniently failed to notify the public about in his response," he said. "It was later revealed that in addition to being his campaign manager, he is the legal, recorded campaign treasurer for Jose's campaign."

Glick said Kauffman again publicly replied confirming that he wrote the original draft of the mailer, offering it up to the candidates to edit.

Glick quoted Kauffman's response, "After your criticism, I carefully reread the copy I received, looking to see if the final draft in some way justified your criticism. I didn't find it." He went on to say in the response that many community members helped to support the campaign and confirmed that he was Elizalde's campaign manager.

Later on, Glick received copies of the public campaign finances to review, stating that he still didn't feel Kauffman's words to be the truth.

"I found that the money for the mailer was reported as large donations to the candidates from Allan Kauffman. The amount reported was over five and a half thousand dollars..." Glick said.

Kauffman then went to Facebook to tell his friends that he was accused of paying for the mailer, but that many donated to it.

Glick wasn't able to continue on discussing the topic due to a limitation of three minutes put on each public comment speaker. Weddell thanked Glick for his comments and told him he looks forward to working with him starting in January when he officially joins the board. He will be the only new board member entering in 2023.

Other items to come before the board included:

—The Goshen School Board officially approved an agreement that gives teachers a much-needed raise. It's a total of an 8% raise for most. Highlights of the new teacher pay contract include a total of more than $2 million dedicated to raising teacher salaries to a starting pay of $43,000 (bachelor's) or $44,575 (master's) with top pay of over $75,000; and a stipend for GHS Early College teachers.

—Daniel Longcor was recognized for coordinating and leading the GCS elementary school soccer tournament. Karen Brock was recognized along with Waterford winning the elementary school soccer tournament in Group A.

—Mike and Lee Wynn are recognized for leading the GHS boys cross-country team to state finals and a 15th place finish. Brady Abney, Lincoln Clark, Tommy Claxton, Dorian Diaz, Todd Kauffman, Luis Loera, and Alex Lopez, and Peter Moser were recognized for making sectional, regional, semi-state, and state qualifier in cross country, and 15th at state.

—Daniel Love was recognized for leading the GHS boys tennis team to an undefeated season and semi-state competition. The only loss of the year, at semi-state, was to the eventual state champions. Pi Wellington, Moses Sawatzky, Isaac Stahly, Myles McLaughlin, Joel Byler, Moses Kratzer and Kyan Miller were recognized for an undefeated regular season, winning the NLC, sectionals and regionals, and competing at semi-state.

—Todd Williams was recognized for working diligently with staff to significantly increase student achievement.

—Tom Cox, Josh Kaufman and the Crimson Marching Band were recognized for being ISSMA Marching Band State-qualifiers and representing Goshen so well, by capturing seventh place in Class A, the highest finish ever for GHS in Class A.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.