NHCS board votes to immediately overhaul middle school sex ed, hears financial health presentation

Previously, the district had three options — families could keep their students out of sex ed or opt into one of two programs. The district offered an abstinence-based curriculum called ‘My Life’ and a more comprehensive program called “Stepping Stones,” which included units on gender identity.

Staff had previously recommended the curriculum would be opt-out instead of opt-in, meaning families would have to actively choose to drop the program. Staff asked that the change start next academic year. (*You can see the recommendations at the end of this report.)

After board member Pat Bradford brought forth the motion, they voted for a more immediate change: the district will now move to a single optional sex ed curriculum, called ‘Family Life’. This means the default is not having a sex ed class. The opt-in option will be an abstinence-first curriculum that also includes information on contraception, fetal development, sex trafficking and abuse, and self-breast/testicular exams. In keeping with the board’s efforts to comply with White House executive orders, it will not include lessons on gender roles and LGBTQ+ identities.

This vote is part of broader efforts to eliminate references to gender identity from the district’s policies.

In the school year 2022-2023 (latest data available), NHCS parents were opting into the more comprehensive Stepping Stones program at higher rates than the abstinence-based My Life curriculum. For example, parents of 8th graders were opting in at a rate of 42% for Stepping Stones vs 10% for My Life; parents of 6th graders were opting in at 49% and 27%, respectively.

Rachel Keith

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NHCS

About 40% of the speakers during the public comment period wanted the district to keep the old Stepping Stones curriculum, which included information about gender identities and the LGBTQ+ community.

WHQR reached out to Assistant Superintendent Dr. Robin Hamilton on when the opt-in forms would go out to student families and how they will handle changing the curriculum, as the vote was to switch to ‘Family Life’ immediately.

Hamilton wrote to WHQR, "We met today [Wednesday] and are obtaining feedback from various stakeholders so that we can have a unified rollout that meets Board policy requirements."

She said during the meeting that four particular lessons were targeted for removal, adding the content was not in state standards or general statutes.

For clarity for the members, Barnes asked Hamilton to review the lessons that would be removed. Hamilton obliged and said they were about gender roles and LGBTQ+ identities.

Board member Judy Justice said she was concerned about what these changes would signal to the LGBTQ+ student community.

“I'm very concerned because they need to learn reality, and this is reality, and it always has been. For their safety's sake, when I was teaching in the 1990s, I had several kids try to commit suicide because of the attitude of their peers in schools from ignorance. The less ignorance, the safer our kids are. Bullying is a huge issue, and it revolves around this topic: gender identification and roles,” she said.

Board member David Perry, who recently discussed his views on WHQR’s The Newsroom, said gender identity and ‘ideology’ discussions need to be removed from the district’s curriculum and that they need to comply with new federal guidance on this issue.

During the meeting, board member Josie Barnhart asked Hamilton for parents opting into Family Life, could they still opt out of specific lessons they object to? Hamilton responded that she hadn’t heard of that before but that the school could work with those parents at each school.

Family Life will still have education on contraception (Barnhart made it clear, though, that the district does not provide contraception to students), information on sexually transmitted diseases, and awareness of sexual assault, abuse, and harassment.

Aaron Beaulieu of School Operations Specialists, LLC (SOS), presented his firm’s 24-page report on the district’s financial health. His report is here.

Beaulieu was contracted in November 2024 to conduct the report, and the district could still use his services until June 30 of this year. His rate was $125 an hour, not to exceed 300 hours or $37,500. According to the district, he hasn’t sent the district his final invoice for payment.

He told the public that the district is in good financial standing but that its $1.3 million in fund balance is too low for a district of its size. He recommended reserving about 4% to 8% of its local current expense (roughly $12 million) so the district wouldn’t "depend on someone bailing you out of a situation.” They learned this lesson after Hurricane Florence, when the district was in charge of getting reimbursements from FEMA

The county’s board of commissioners recently agreed to cover any expenses the district incurs during “emergency situations," which includes national disasters. However, Beaulieu said the district needs to be prepared for other emergencies unrelated to storms (it’s unclear whether Beaulieu was familiar with the agreement with the county or what particular situations might fall outside the county’s willingness to backstop the district).

Another issue Beaulieu brought up, which has also been cited by past administrations, is the occasional lag in funding from the state. For example, when schools have year-over-year enrollment growth, they sometimes don’t see increased state funding for several months — a fund balance can help the school bridge that kind of gap.

He said legislators had to return and approve a special appropriation for that growth. On top of that, Beaulieu said, “You’re dealing with charter schools — none of us know the impact of the voucher issues, but those things have a definite impact.”

NHCS sent about $7 million to county charter schools this year — and $6.2 million went to private schools in the county. Some charter school money passes through the district’s budget. Private school vouchers are paid directly to the families/schools receiving them.

The members pressed Beaulieu on where that money for fund balance could possibly come from — he replied that districts across the state are not filling vacancies and using those savings to put into that. Barnes added that they don’t have a vacancy issue at the district, so it would be hard to recoup funds there.

“This year, we have gone from posting a job to filling a job from 45 days down to 20, so what would ordinarily be ‘lapse salaries,’ we don’t see it as much here,” Barnes said.

Beaulieu found that the district has “reconciled” or reduced 450 positions over the last years to improve its financial position, but he said this might affect future services, especially those for exceptional children (EC).

He said that EC staffing levels have gotten “too lean,” which could affect “the quality of services.” He told the board they could only push this staff so far.

In the report, Beaulieu wrote, “The current capacity of the district’s special education department is insufficient to meet the growing demands of compliance, service delivery, and support for schools and students with disabilities. With only 12 district-level staff serving 45 schools, the department is stretched far beyond its capacity to provide the necessary oversight, coaching, and compliance monitoring. This lean structure leaves schools without adequate guidance and disproportionately burdens inexperienced staff, contributing to delays, inefficiencies, and heightened legal and compliance risks.”

Barnhart said that a specialized allotment formula for EC staff is part of the board’s budget request to the state legislature.

Barnes drew attention to last year’s difficult budget cuts, although not just on EC staff.

“This year, we took all of our teacher assistants that had been allocated for 3rd grade and gave them over to EC simply because there wasn’t enough money to get the job done,” he added.

Beaulieu also brought to the board the potential to consolidate schools with declining average daily membership (ADM), which is student enrollment numbers. This, he said, would reduce district costs.

He wrote, “Six elementary schools with fewer than 350 students were identified as potential candidates for consolidation to optimize funding and staffing. We know this is way easier said than done, but ongoing conversations need to happen about this, especially if enrollment numbers continue to decrease.”

Like the last independent financial audit by Anderson, Smith, & Wike PLLC, which cost nearly $69,000, Beaulieu praised the influx of funds from child nutrition programs. He said they had a $4 million net surplus in this fund and that it’s not subsidized locally.

Chief Financial Officer Ashley Sutton also confirmed to WHQR that Beaulieu found about $500,000 annually in savings from “fully utilizing state allocations for employee benefits. Specifically, NHCS will track state-paid employees who do not elect to participate in state benefits and submit monthly reimbursement requests to the state for the unused portion of these benefits.”