Mention of transgender care imperils Douglas, Sarpy learning community plan at State Board of Ed meeting

The State Board of Education took no action on the Community Achievement Plan of the Learning Community of Douglas and Sarpy counties after some members shared concerns about a partnership with an organization that provides transgender health care.

The overall plan includes initiatives to improve access to early childhood education, increasing parent engagement and boosting student attendance.

One part of the plan includes a partnership with OneWorld Community Health Centers that helped create a learning center in South Omaha. Lisa Schonhoff, a Republican on the officially non-partisan board whose district includes part of Douglas County, said she didn’t take issue with other services listed under OneWorld’s website like dental, behavioral health and care to the underserved.

“My hangup is this — because this is child abuse in my mind, and I won't attach my name to it — ‘hormone therapy and medical transition assistance for transgender individuals,’” Schonhoff said. “Our kids are minors, and what happens is a slippery slope because you see it in states like Washington.”

Nebraska Public Media News searched OneWorld’s website for mentions of transition assistance and hormone therapy and was able to find one mention of hormone therapy.

Deborah Neary, who represents the central part of Douglas County, said every health-based center in Omaha provides that same care.

“The offer was on the table that we just write that into the plan that no state funds can go towards those kinds of activities, but they aren't part of the plan anyway,” Neary said. “But that compromise was also turned down.”

Board member Sherry Jones said she wanted to wait to give board members who aren’t on the planning and evaluation committee more time to look at the plan and all the materials with it, especially the nonprofits associated with the plan.

“I'm going to wait to share more of my thoughts specifically, until I speak with some of the superintendents of the learning community and the coordinating council members before I make more statements today,” Jones said.

Kristin Christensen, who is chair of the policy and evaluation committee that looked over the plan, said the full board saw a presentation at its December meeting about the plan and has had the documents for a while.

“It feels a little frustrating to me when we've had time to kind of vet this and look through it and have these discussions, and then when it comes time to, now it’s an action item this month, then now we're putting the brakes on and halting it when we've had time before this month to get to this point,” Christensen said.

In addition to concerns about OneWorld, Schonhoff said her main issue with the plan was the evaluation tools being used in early childhood and preschool classrooms. She said teachers are required to track student social and emotional activities throughout the day, which is distracting for teachers.

“I don't think constant evaluation and tracking of preschoolers' social and emotional health is healthy,” Schonhoff said. “I just read a research study on the relationship between overly analyzing and self-reflecting, and how it can actually contribute to higher rates of anxiety and depression. Why are we starting that at pre-K? It's too much.”

The board took no action on the learning community’s plan Friday. Shirley Vargas, school transformation officer for the Nebraska Department of Education, said the Community Achievement Plan allows for funds attached to the plan to be dispersed in state aid. She said the board would have one more month to consider the plan before state aid needs to be certified by March 1.

Literacy updates

Jamie Cook, NDE literacy officer, provided an update on the rollout of a $55 million federal literacy grant.

In August, the state board approved 46 school districts to receive funds under the grant. Cook said although the projects have only been going for about three months, there are already improvements, including an increase in teacher readiness to apply early literacy skills from 60% to 87%. She added that for fourth-grade teachers and up, those scores averaged 96%.

“These pre- and post-assessment results — for those subgrantees that have engaged in professional learning — from teachers show progress in strengthening instructional quality and building educator capacity and confidence, which are key actions towards improving literacy outcomes,” Cook said.

Cook also highlighted a school district that improved reading fluency by an average of 32 words read correctly. Another district distributed more than 1,000 literacy kits to families, and Cook said another district saw students log 44,000 minutes of reading in one month.

The State Board of Education is set to meet for its next regular business meeting Feb. 6.