MISSION VIEJO : Saddleback Board Votes Against Curriculum Review

Convinced that administrators are addressing concerns about student performance, the Saddleback Valley Unified School District board has decided against forming a community task force to review reading and math curricula.

Trustee Frank L. Ury proposed the idea late last month after being alarmed by 10th-grade students’ recent math scores on the state CLAS test.

The board voted 3 to 2 last week against the proposal that would have allowed each trustee to appoint three people to a task force to review steps the district was taking to improve student scores in reading and math.

Ury and Trustee Debbie Hughes favored the task force, while trustees Marcia L. Birch, Bobbee Cline and Dore J. Gilbert were opposed.

The issue also divided parents at the board’s Tuesday meeting.

“It’s just a review,” said Bill Goodwin, a parent who ran for the school board last November. “It’s an audit.”

But other parents were opposed, saying they had confidence in teachers and administrators that enough was being done to strengthen curriculum and teaching methods. The parents said that both curriculum review and revision were better left to educators rather than parents or other volunteers.

“If I have a sick child, I don’t go to an engineer or my neighbor,” said one woman with children in the school district. “I go to a doctor.”