Curriculum committee forwards ELA and music course guides to board, schedules deeper review of module referencing Marx

The Watertown Unified School District curriculum committee on April 15 agreed to forward three sets of course guides — K–5 music, RMS (6–8) ELA and high‑school ELA — to the full board for consideration on April 27, and asked staff to schedule a deeper committee review of a middle‑school module that several members said introduces Marxist ideas without sufficient historical context.

Committee members praised teachers for compiling the guides and described the documents as intended to be dynamic, accessible to families and a communication tool about what students will study. "These are not meant to be static," the committee chair said during the meeting, adding the guides should be posted so parents can readily access them.

Concerns about one RMS handout surfaced during the middle‑school ELA review. A committee member said excerpts in handout 16b discussing Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels "give just enough information to get kids in trouble" and do not provide the historical context a teacher would need to cover the development of revolutionary movements and their consequences. The member said the passage risks presenting a simplified or flattering view of Marxist thought without balancing materials.

Teachers and administrators responded that the excerpt is used as part of an ELA lesson on critical thinking and is tied to a specific ELA standard, not presented in isolation as a full history unit. One teacher explained the excerpt appears within student instructional materials and that a related video and fuller historical treatment occur later in the sequence. The district staff noted the controversial‑issues policy and parent‑notification processes are available when material might prompt opt‑out conversations.

Sam, a board liaison to the human growth and development committee, urged a fuller review. "This is their first exposure to it, and I don't believe that they really get into the history of the Russian revolution until at least 9th grade," he said, asking that the committee set a future agenda item for an in‑depth examination of the Wit & Wisdom module used in the RMS ELA sequence.

The chair proposed forwarding the current course guides to the full board and scheduling the Wit & Wisdom review separately. Committee members agreed and the materials will be presented to the full board at its April 27 meeting; the committee will convene a future, dedicated discussion of the flagged RMS module.

What happens next: The committee is forwarding the course guides as presented to the April 27 full board meeting for approval and will schedule a separate, more detailed review of the middle‑school ELA unit that raised concerns. Teachers said they will continue to follow the district's notification procedures and work with principals when families express concerns.

(Reporting note: quotations and attributions come from the April 15 curriculum committee transcript. The transcript uses variants of the textbook series name; the committee and teachers referred to the RMS ELA materials and the Wit & Wisdom module by name.)