For the third meeting in a row, outspoken global warming skeptic Board member Dr. Jeffery Barke was absent from the Board of Education meeting last night. Thus, he has not attended either of the two readings of changes to the District’s Controversial Issues Policy.
When the policy was passed back in May, it required the teacher or the Principal of Los Alamitos High School to make a presentation to the Board of Education on the curriculum of a new class. The class, which began this year, is AP Environmental Science and it includes a section on global warming.
Thus, the Board of Education directed the teacher, or the Principal of Los Alamitos High School, to present to the Board how the alternative view of global warming – presumably that either global warming doesn’t exist, or it is not manmade — was handled in the classroom. At the time the Board mandated this report, Dr. Barke’s global warming skepticism comments brought a thunderstorm of negative international attention upon the Board and the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
When the first reading of the policy change was presented to the Board two weeks ago, Dr. Barke was not present and each of the other four Board members indicated support for the policy modification. The intent of the modification is to focus any discussion of controversial issues toward critical consideration of alternative perspectives.
Dr. Barke’s comments last May strongly indicated his goal was much more political.
“I believe my role in the board is to represent the conservative voice of the community,” Dr. Barke said in May 2011. “I’m not a big fan of global warming.”
Whether political positioning or teaching critical thinking was the goal in May when the report on AP Environmental Science was order, the Board of Education brushed it all away last night. Under the new policy, a Board Member may request a report on how controversial issues are presented in any class, but rather than being required, it is only upon request and so far, no such request has been made. Since Dr. Barke wasn’t there to make such a request that could very well be the end of the issue.
Of course, the actual educators involved never saw it as an issue in the first place. Their goal is much simpler.
“They don’t have time for any of that,” Los Alamitos High School Principal Dr. Grant Litfin told OC180NEWS. “The curriculum isn’t ours, it comes from the College Board.”
The goal is to get the students college credit for the course and to do that, they must pass the AP qualifying test. Dr. Litfin told us the curriculum is very rigorous.
That curriculum however, does include something about the alleged global warming controversy. In fact, the AP Environmental Science students had an assignment due recently entitled “Global Consensus.”
Board President Karen Russell told OC180NEWS Dr. Barke was absent from the meeting last night because he was recovering from surgery. OC180NEWS was told the same thing two weeks ago when Dr. Barke missed the first reading of the policy change. Dr. Barke did not respond to our requests for comments yesterday. Perhaps he will request a report on AP Environmental Science when he returns to the Board.
The Los Alamitos Unified School District serves nearly 10,000 students in Seal Beach, Rossmoor, and Los Alamitos. The district includes Los Alamitos High School, a full service high school, Laurel High School, a continuation high school, McAuliffe Middle School, Oak Middle School, and six elementary schools. Mrs. Karen Russell is the current President of the Board of Education. Dr. Sherry Kropp is the Superintendant of the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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Finally, a policy that makes sense and trusts teachers to do their jobs well. I personally think global warming is a crock but this policy makes clear that my (or a school board member’s) opinion about science or curriculum is and should be irrelevant to what is taught in class.