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Advisory committee to review health curriculum after school board asks focus on safety of queer students
Summary
The Health & Wellness Advisory Committee reviewed follow-up from a May school committee meeting and will begin reviewing high-school health curriculum focused on the safety of queer students; members also discussed school-mandated in-person implicit-bias training for staff and asked that outside professionals be used for rollout.
The North Kingstown Health & Wellness Advisory Committee on June 10 reviewed five recommendations it sent to the school committee and outlined next steps for work this summer and next school year. The advisory committee said the school committee officially asked it to review the district’s health curriculum with particular attention to the health and safety of queer students; administration will review the other recommendations.
Committee members described recent student public comment as influential, saying student testimony helped clarify the problems the committee had identified and could accelerate implementation. Members noted a parent at the school-committee meeting also shared a racially based bullying incident that reinforced the need for broad curriculum and practice changes.
Separately, the school committee voted to require in-person implicit-bias training for all staff and administrators by the end of the next school year. Advisory members urged that the district hire outside professionals to deliver the training rather than rely solely on internal staff, and they discussed questions about rollout, timing and whether the training should be accompanied by follow-up professional development tied to the revised discipline policy.
Members agreed to gather resources and examples this summer (including evidence-based curricula referenced during the meeting) and to reconvene with administration to align the advisory committee’s review with the district’s planned policy and professional-development timeline. The committee requested clarification from administration on implementation sequencing and the expected support for staff once the school committee’s training mandate is finalized.
The meeting closed with members asking that the health-curriculum review begin next year and that the advisory committee and administration coordinate on vendor selection, scope and evaluation metrics for training and curriculum revisions.
