WENTZVILLE — The Wentzville School Board has approved new curriculum that provides guidance counselors a road map for counseling students at each grade level — though not without pushback from two board members.
Development of the curriculum began before the pandemic, and counselors had already been doing much of what the curriculum laid out, Priscilla Frost, director of secondary learning, said. But having an organized, written document of what to do and when would ensure consistency and make expectations clear.
“Counselors are already doing what they need to be doing,†Frost said. “What we’ve done is just give them a clear pathway for them to do that.â€
Counselors help students with academic and career goals through lesson plans, individual and group counseling and more. They also respond to students’ issues that interfere with schooling or emotional health. The social and emotional health aspects of the work received flack from critics who said it was not the district’s role to “parent†children.
People are also reading…
The proposal for new curriculum passed 5-2 at the board’s meeting Wednesday night, with Jen Olson and Renee Henke acting as the two lone nos.
Both Olson and Henke have been key figures in the culture wars that have engulfed education in St. Charles County in recent months.
Olson previously sponsored a policy that restricted which bathrooms transgender students could use. The policy passed last month and will take effect in April.
And both Olson and Henke provided affidavits to Attorney General Andrew Bailey as part of Bailey’s lawsuit against the board in September. Bailey claimed the board violated Missouri’s open meetings law by holding a private meeting to discuss a transgender bathroom policy. A hearing for the suit is scheduled for March 4.
Wentzville based its counseling curriculum on Missouri standards that covered three areas: academic development, social and emotional development and career development.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Olson said she had concerns about the curriculum’s inclusion of a program called Leader in Me, a “social-emotional learning process†created by coaching company Franklin Covey. Leader in Me “empowers students with the leadership and life skills they need to thrive in the 21st century,†according to Franklin Covey’s website.
Olson did not respond to a request seeking more information about her opposition to the program, but nationwide, social-emotional learning, which Leader in Me incorporates, has drawn conservative scrutiny in recent years.
Critics link it to another political lightning rod: Critical Race Theory. Conservative think tank Center for Renewing America lists social-emotional learning in its “Glossary of CRT-Related Terms†because “activists want to use the ‘social’ focus of SEL to teach the CRT view.â€
At the board meeting, Olson said she “absolutely, 100%†saw the need for a counseling program. But she questioned how a parent could opt their child out of something that is “interwoven†into the entire curriculum.
“We’re taking away the rights of parents and families to opt out,†Olson said.
Several Wentzville counselors, parents and teachers pleaded with the board to pass the curriculum.
“Without the district-wide school curriculum that is before you tonight, you are asking school counselors to still go into classrooms and offer lessons for 35-40% of their time, but with no guidance whatsoever of what they should be covering with those lessons,†teacher Rebekah Messick said.
Parents who later spoke to the Post-Dispatch said they feared the board would nix counseling altogether, in part because of text messages sent by Olson that surfaced online this week.
A Facebook page called WSD Board Watch posted the texts obtained through an open records request. A copy of the records was obtained by the Post-Dispatch.
Most were sent by Olson in a group chat containing Henke, fellow school board member David Lewis and Peg Bottorff, a member of the St. Charles County Republican Central Committee.
Olson wrote that the district needed to cancel the Leader in Me contract, and then end “restorative practices†and participation in “Trauma-Informed Model Districts.†The latter seemed to be a reference to the , which involves recognizing and responding to symptoms of trauma in students.
“Those are the main root of the problems and indoctrination,†Olson wrote.
The majority of a crowd of about 35 people cheered after the board voted to approve the counseling curriculum.
Frost said the curriculum will be implemented immediately.