Hollidaysburg Area School Board rejects AP textbook

Monthly meeting also addresses mold, reviews policies

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- The Hollidaysburg Area School Board denied the approval of an AP Human Geography textbook Wednesday evening after one member described its discussion of gender identity as "indoctrination."

A motion made during the board's monthly meeting was to approve the textbook, which failed in a four to three vote. Members Cara Eardley, Ying Li, Michelle Luther and John Wells voted against the textbook, while members Joseph Antonowicz, Carmen Bilek and Jesse Blank voted in favor. Members Kenneth Snyder and Missy Sullivan were absent.

In explaining her dissent, Li stated the textbook contained "content that reflects one-sided political viewpoints." She cited the College Board AP Human Geography standards as mentioning gender as men and women, while the proposed textbook "defines gender as one's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither."

Li told the board that she and Sullivan had asked for and recommended alternative textbooks but "didn't receive any response."

"I will also mention that this also appears in the AP Psychology and some other textbooks that we voted on in the past," Li said. "I think this is a trend and it is indoctrination."

Mold rumors addressed

In other business, Superintendent Curtis Whitesel asked Director of Physical Plant Jonathan Nihart to "address some of the rumors that are out there" regarding the discovery of mold in district buildings.

Nihart said mold had been found in "some of our school buildings" but that it "is not widespread in any building."

"There are some rooms that, in the main area, we're finding it on the bottom side of tables," Nihart said. "We've been working through that over the past week."

The district brought in its air quality contractor Mountain Research, who "have been working with us to identify areas" and get them cleaned in time for the start of school, Nihart said. Once the rooms were cleaned, Mountain Research went back through the buildings for post inspections.

"We will be doing air sampling tomorrow," Nihart said. "Those samples will be sent directly to the lab and we hope to have the results by the end of day tomorrow or Friday."

If those results are not favorable, Nihart said they "will be working through the weekend to address the areas that are not within our standards" and retest levels again on Monday.

"None of our buildings are closed because of this issue," Nihart said, adding that Longer Elementary is closed because its floors are being waxed. "Not all of our buildings are affected, but we are sampling. We are doing testing in all the buildings."

Policy questioned

Also on the agenda were the second reading of 10 district policies and the first reading of eight other policies, including a draft of policy 815.2: Educational Use of Student-Owned Technology Devices.

District parent Michael Gerchak voiced his concern regarding the policy during the meeting's public comment section, calling it "suspicious" and "troubling" to read as a parent. He referenced part of the policy under subhead "delegation of responsibility" that reads "the district reserves the right to take appropriate action, which may, depending on the circumstances, include monitoring, inspecting, copying or reviewing" the device when district administration "has a reasonable suspicion that a violation of district policy or applicable law has occurred" and the student's guardians agree with the action. It further states that "there is no expectation of privacy that would restrict the district's exercise of such rights."

"I'm a little worried about having students have to give over their entire device that has a lot of sensitive information on it that the school could then just copy," Gerchak said. "I do not trust this administration to have that information and to not use it against students. I would not trust you to not out a student."

Gerchak said he also noticed the policy stated that students would not be permitted to use their personal devices "during an actual emergency."

The policy, which is available for public viewing on the district's BoardDocs site, states that "exceptions to the prohibitions set forth in this policy may be made for health, safety or emergency reasons with prior approval of the building principal or designee." Under the "guidelines" section of the policy, it then states that the use of personal devices by students is "forbidden during assemblies, detention, in-school suspension, during fire or other emergency drills, or during actual emergencies."

"So the way that that sounds to me is that if there were to be an event, that students would not be allowed to call 911 or let their parents know that they're safe but there is an emergency happening at the school," Gerchak said. "I'm just struggling with the benefit of telling students that they do not have any rights."

The board ultimately approved the second reading of the 10 policies and the first reading of the eight that included the Educational Use of Student-Owned Technology Devices. Luther was the only dissenting vote for the first reading.

The board's next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 9 in the high school library.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.