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Intelligent Design Syllabus Spurs School Board
into Special Holiday Meeting
Jan. 6, 2006
By Patric Hedlund
Voters of the Mountain Communities can feel proud this week for initial steps taken in an extraordinary New Year’s Day event. The representatives they chose to oversee the local school district firmly stepped up to the responsibility they were elected to fulfill.
Last week The Mountain Enterprise reported that district employees—reportedly by accident and in haste—had given the El Tejon Unified School District Board of Trustees false information on Dec. 14 in a syllabus for an elective “Philosophy of Intelligent Design” course to be offered during Frazier Mountain High School’s one month intersession [see definition in sidebar below].
Within hours of this newspaper’s report being on newsstands and in mailboxes Thursday, Dec. 29, elected Trustees were calling the office of the ETUSD Superintendent.
By 1:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30, a fax puttered across the electronic threshold into The Mountain Enterprise office, slowly forming words on the paper squeezing onto the tray: “El Tejon Unified School District/ Special Meeting of the Governing Board/ Sunday, Jan. 1, 2006 at 1:30 p.m.” The item for discussion and action was noted as “Consideration of Intercession Curriculum Courses at Frazier Mountain High School.”
It was unpoken, but understood by all: the hot-button national issue of religion in the public schools had helped mobilize the volunteer board of community leaders to reschedule family holiday plans to gather on this stormy Sunday afternoon.
But an equally vital question confronted the elected representatives, and is perhaps the actual centerpiece of this unprecedented meeting: What are the Governing Board’s policies and procedures regarding review of intersession curricula? And what is the responsibility of district employees to provide accurate, complete and well-prepared data for such reviews?
On a mountain with what must be one of the highest per capita rates of faith-based home-schooled children in California, the request of Frazier Mountain High School’s popular Lady Falcon’s soccer coach to teach what the new principal described as “a course in critical thinking,” has triggered vigorous local discussions about the future of science, philosophy, free speech and public schools.
The course was originally titled “The Philosophy of Intelligent Design.” [The original syllabus is posted on www.mountainenterprise.com. A version annotated by a critic of the syllabus appears there also.]
A one-paragraph description of the class was offered to students on their list of intersession options.
• Philosophy of Intelligent Design: “This class will take a close look at evolution as a theory and will discuss the scientific, biological, and Biblical aspects that suggest why Darwin’s philosophy is not rock solid. This class will discuss Intelligent Design as an alternative response to evolution. Topics that wlll be covered are the age of the earth, a world wide flood, dinosaurs, pre-human fossils, dating methods, DNA, radioisotopes, and geological evidence. Physical and chemical evidence will be presented suggesting the earth is thousands of years old, not billions. The class will include lecture discussions, guest speakers, and videos. The class grade will be based on a position paper in which students will support or refute the theory of evolution.”
About thirty people attended the Special Meeting at the FMHS library January 1, including the five members of the Governing Board, the student representative, Superintendent John Wight, his administrative assistant, new FMHS Principal Dan Penner, numerous members of the teachers’ union, Ken Hurst (volunteer Lead Mentor for the school’s Robotics program and family members who are also volunteer mentors for the Robotics team), FMHS science teachers Tim Garcia and Jim Selgrath, FMHS mathematics instructor and Academic Decathlon Coach Jim Atkinson, four members of the press and additional family of those noted above.
The Trustees discussed established Board Policy regarding supervision of curricula and the merits of intersession itself, then began a cursory review of a list of the 21 intersession electives offered in the mornings (ranging from Drumline and World of Knitting to Mythology and remedial Algebra).
A full half-hour into the meeting, the Trustees seemed surprised to have progressed to the list of the school’s afternoon elective offerings. The second item on the list was “Philosophy of Intelligent Design.” A Trustee asked for a syllabus. Superintendent Wight distributed a document titled “Philosophy of Design,” with the same instructor, a revised list of videos and no guest speakers named. The items to be discussed included “What is Intelligent Design/Creationism?” and “What is the Theory of Evolution/Darwinism?” Governing Board members were not given time away from the meeting to study the revised syllabus.
New Trustee Phyllis Throckmorton, an experienced administrator with the Oxnard School District, made a motion to approve the intersession curriculum, deleting only the Intelligent Design class. Veteran Trustee Kitty Jo Nelson seconded the motion. The vote was three to two against the motion, with Board Chairman Steve Newman, Trustees Stacey Gustafson and Paula Regan dissenting. A second motion was made to approve the intersession curriculum including the newly named “Philosophy of Design” class. That motion passed three to two, with the student representative, Scott Biering, voting with dissenters Throckmorton and Nelson.
If his vote had counted, the outcome would have been been 3-3, but he has advisory capacity only.
After the vote, members of the FMHS science and math faculty, Jim Selgrath, Tim Garcia and Jim Atkinson, stood to each individually lodge a formal protest, stating their concerns about offering the course as planned. They spoke of undermining the science curriculum in the school. They also mentioned they felt compelled to be there to protest
“in the case of legal action.”
Superintendent Wight said that a minimum of “15 to 20” students is necessary to proceed with a class. He said there were 15 students enrolled for the Philosophy of Design elective. In fact, the District office confirmed on January 4, that when students returned from vacation for intercession classes, 13 students attended the class on “Philosophy of Design.”
The District said the class will proceed.
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