In Pennridge, teachers clash with the school board over the promise of an ‘ideology-free’ curriculum

A series of Pennridge school board meetings this week featured hours of tense debate over a proposed curriculum remake presented by a consultant connected to the conservative education movement.

At a contentious meeting Tuesday, teachers and parents listened to a first presentation by Jordan Adams, the board-hired consultant with ties to Hillsdale College, a Christian college in Hillsdale, Mich., that has become a campaign stop and education model for conservative politicians including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Some expressed confusion over why the board believed that a newly minted consultant promising an “ideology-free” curriculum was better equipped to assess the district’s offerings than its own curriculum supervisors, who pointed out issues with the proposals.

Others at Tuesday’s meeting and another held Wednesday said they worried about the direction of the Bucks County district, where close to 7,000 students attend school.

Here’s how the meetings played out and what it means for Pennridge:

The curriculum controversy began late last year, when the board voted to cut the number of required social studies credits at the high school from four to three.

The board then moved to incorporate Hillsdale College’s 1776 Curriculum — which was first released in 2021 following conservative backlash to the 1619 Project, the New York Times initiative that centered slavery in the country’s origin story. The college — whose president, Larry Arnn, led Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission — says the history curriculum shows how America’s founding principles make the United States “an exceptionally good country.” But historians have criticized it as ideologically driven.

By April, the board had hired Adams, a former Hillsdale employee based in Michigan, to review its curriculum.

“Our end goal is that every single kid who leaves Pennridge loves this country and understands our Constitution,” board member Ricki Chaikin said at the time. “Right now, that’s not happening.”

» READ MORE: The Pennridge school district is considering Hillsdale’s controversial ‘1776 Curriculum.’ What is it?

A 2013 Hillsdale graduate, Adams has taught at a Hillsdale-affiliated charter school and a “classical Catholic school,” and worked for the college’s initiative growing a network of charters.

His consulting company, Vermilion, “got off the ground in March,” he told the board Tuesday, appearing by Zoom. Pennridge is the first school district in the country to hire him — at a rate of $125 an hour, with no limit on how long his services will last. Adams is set to speak at the Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia next week.

He made his first set of recommendations Tuesday after reviewing proposed seventh- and eighth-grade reading courses and social studies courses.

Among his suggestions for the reading courses: adding more books, reducing the number of books focused on traumatic events, and ensuring that books are free from “sexualized content.” At one point, Adams read passages from War and Watermelon, a young-adult novel by Rich Wallace that is included as an option in the curriculum, noting references to attempting to touch a girl’s breasts.

“My concern here is whether or not this is a model of behavior” that boys reading the book should emulate, Adams said.

He also proposed numerous shifts in social studies for when world and American history are taught.

Adams’ presentation faced pushback from the district’s curriculum supervisors. Social studies supervisor Jenna Vitale questioned why Adams had suggested that first graders — currently slated to learn about “rules and responsibilities,” geography, and “people and places” — be taught “World History: Ancient Near East” and “American History: 1492-1787.”

Adams responded that “history is, at its heart, a story,” and could be “a vehicle” for first graders to learn the same concepts. But Vitale said finding resources to teach about the ancient Near East to children that age would be very difficult.

Although Adams suggested additional books for seventh and eighth grade reading courses, “a lot of those texts” appear elsewhere in the district’s curriculum, said Sarah Raber, the district’s reading, English and language arts supervisor. She also noted that books included in the curriculum were all chosen for specific reasons.

The district needs to ensure that “students are interested in reading” books, “especially when we’re talking about reluctant readers,” Raber said. (Another teacher, Ken Ehrmann, noted that Adams had “tripled the readings” in a course meant for struggling readers, showing a “complete lack of connection to what our courses are and who they’re for.”)

The backlash continued at a meeting Wednesday, where community members repeatedly panned Adams as uninformed. “My jaw dropped when his first recommendation was, ‘More books,’” said Robin Reid, a recent Pennridge High School graduate. “Groundbreaking.”

Jynx Smalls, an incoming Pennridge freshman, said Vermilion would “sugarcoat everything” and that students “need to learn about the real world, not some utopia you want to pretend that we live in.”

Noting that Vermilion’s website features a quote from abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave,” Smalls, who is biracial, said: “Do you know anything about slaves? Were any of your ancestors slaves? How tone deaf can you be?”

The board halted plans to terminate the jobs of its four curriculum supervisors — a proposal that had spurred intense backlash Tuesday. At Wednesday’s meeting, Megan Banis-Clemens, the board’s vice president, said the supervisors would work with Adams on updating the district’s curriculum.

Community members, who wore “Stop Vermilion” stickers Wednesday, are still pushing to fire Adams, with an online petition calling for his termination garnering more than 1,400 signatures. But that is not a sure shot by any stretch. While the largely Republican board includes members who are staunchly opposed to Vermilion, a motion to terminate his contract failed Wednesday, with four in favor and five against.

Meanwhile, the district’s superintendent, David Bolton, is on medical leave and plans to retire Oct. 31, the district announced Wednesday. “I love the Pennridge community and am incredibly proud of the work we have accomplished,” Bolton said Thursday, calling it “a privilege to serve as your superintendent for the past five years.”

Bolton had objected to Adams’ hiring, according to an email obtained by community members. In the email, the superintendent said he was “concerned that one board member negotiated a contract with a curriculum consultant without conversation with anyone responsible for the development of curriculum.”

“You have indicated multiple times that Hillsdale resources (or the full curriculum) are desired,” Bolton said in the April 25 email to school board member Jordan Blomgren. “This is likely to be seen by some as a move to make that a reality regardless of what the staff thinks is best.”

Adams said he had no authority to change curriculum; it’s up to the district to decide how to respond to his recommendations.

But people continued to express deep frustration Wednesday. “My kids’ education is on the line,” one father told the board.

Erika Henry, a kindergarten teacher, asked the board to rethink its position after a “very mediocre” presentation by Adams.

With teachers standing up for their curriculum, she said, “why aren’t you listening?”