Board action expected next month on health standards

    With more prodding from a former school board member, the CCS board of education will vote on a resolution next month that takes a stand against the state’s proposed health standards for schools.
    Several board members Tuesday spoke in favor of signing the resolution, and board president Karl Meeske directed Supt. Adam Lambert to list it as an action item for the Nov. 9 meeting.
    The resolution was first brought up to the board in public session in May by Sheila Stromberger, a former CCS board member who encouraged the current board to sign it then.
    The resolution was sent out to boards of education from state senators, after it was initiated by Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston. Sen. Dan Hughes, who represents Chase County and the 44th District, sent the resolution to board president Karl Meeske.
    Hughes also recommended its adoption.
    After months of discussion and the state board of education’s decision in September to take a pause in further development of the controversial standards, Stromberger said during Tuesday’s board meeting the issue is not going away.
    She encouraged the board again Tuesday to sign the resolution.
    Action at the state board’s meeting last Friday will set up an ad hoc committee, Stromberger told the board. It will review the process on how the standards developed. Stromberger said the state board then could proceed with adoption of the health standards, or what some on the board refer to as “sex education standards.”
    “So this is not going away,” she said.
    People may ask, “Why should we care about this if we (schools)  can opt out of the standards?” Stromberger added.
    “We should care because the state board of education and the NDE lied—lied about who wrote the standards, they lied about who was involved in the writing of the standards and they lied the entire process,” she said.
    She added, “These are the people in charge of the education of all of our kids.”
    CCS board members last month tabled action on a policy that included state health standards. The board left intact its current policy that states the school will use state standards only for language arts, math, science and social studies.
    She said the emails released recently after a Freedom of Information Act request “prove they (state board) are liars.”
    She also noted state board of education member Patricia Timm of District 5 resigned Friday, and a “call to action” has been issued to investigate how the process in developing the health standards “was so manipulated.”
    Several others on the state board have been asked to resign, as well. Several of those state school board members remain in favor of the first draft of the health standards, she added.
    Again, Stromberger issued a request for the board to sign the resolution to “let our voices be known that we are opposed to the health standards in any form.”
    She said CCS does a good job teaching the majority of what are in the standards on subjects like nutrition, physical education and “growing up” talks by the school nurse.
    “We don’t need their health standards; we are doing fine with what we have now,” she said.
    Later in the meeting, board president Meeske said he is not opposed to signing the resolution.
    Board member Willy O’Neil echoed Stromberger’s comments that action by the state board has not halted.
    “It’s just to get some pressure off them,” O’Neil said.
    Dan Reeves, another board member, said “it’s scary.”
    “It’s just another power grab and overreach. It’s important we control as much as we can here,” Reeves said.