Transparency in public education isn’t optional. It never was. The Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission just made that crystal clear.
In October, the Commission ruled that New Canaan Public Schools and the Board of Education violated the law by holding Curriculum Leadership Council meetings behind closed doors. The district has been ordered to open them to the public, as state law requires.
This ruling should serve as a wake-up call to all school districts across Connecticut. State statute requires every district to have a curriculum committee to “recommend, develop, review and approve curriculum.” And those meetings must be public. For too long, New Canaan’s CLC has met privately, keeping families and taxpayers in the dark about decisions that shape what our students learn, only unveiling programs well after implementation.
When curriculum decisions happen behind closed doors, problems are inevitable. Last year, New Canaan required a reading selection that many parents found inappropriate for its racist and sexual references leading to an after-the-fact review and removal by the Administration. Another example involved a Brown University program where students created Nazi propaganda posters as part of a classroom unit, which was later removed after complaints. These controversies might have been avoided if curriculum work had been done in public from the start.
In 2020, I filed a complaint with the Freedom of Information Commission arguing that the CLC was violating the open-meetings law. The Superintendent and Board of Education disagreed, hiring two attorneys and a Retired Connecticut Supreme Court Justice to make their case. After hearings, testimony and years of delay due to COVID and legal maneuvering, the Commission ruled decisively: the law requires transparency.
This decision isn’t just a win for one person or one town. It’s a victory for the public’s right to know. Open meetings give families the ability to understand and comment on what’s being taught. They also give Boards of Education the tools to manage costs tied to curriculum such as staffing, training, materials, and space before programs are implemented, not after.
There are good examples to follow. Despite New Canaan’s testimony that an open process is very unusual, and is not followed in other towns in Connecticut, it has been a practice in Greenwich for years. It can even be found right in nearby Darien where the curriculum committee meets publicly and evaluates new courses holistically by looking at content, cost, and logistics before adoption. This practice is just common sense.
The law requires New Canaan’s CLC to operate with transparency. In short, the curriculum committee must post agendas and minutes, hold meetings in public, and discuss curriculum plans openly before Board of Education adoption, not after. This level of transparency isn’t a burden; it’s accountability in action.
Every district in Connecticut should take note. Curriculum decisions must be made in the open. Parents and taxpayers deserve to see how programs are developed and to weigh in before they’re finalized.
The public’s right to know isn’t just about process—it’s about trust. And trust in our schools begins with transparency.
Bravo Mrs Naughton. Bravo!!!! Transparency in what and how our children are taught should be a desire for all parents. Thank you for all your efforts.
Should minutes from past meetings be released?
Thank you Maria. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and trying to defend the indefensible using public tax payer dollars for 2 law firms is questionable judgement. Thank you for hanging in there and helping all parents.
Comparing a book that had been taught at the HIGH SCHOOL level for years (and was about another culture- not a racial slur, in fact told from the perspective of that culture) and yes recalled some mature material that nobody was asked to read out loud (again… high school, where kids are soon to leave the house for college and nothing akin to porn) with a shocking scandal that was caught and thwarted verses something most saw as book banning that the high school was forced into is ridiculous. Or the Nazi propaganda posters? That’s incredibly vague and misleading. I think I can guess at the project in question and some people just didn’t like the viewpoint of certain students expressing themselves (again…. in high school). These aren’t small children, they are kids about to enter the world with nobody holding their hand or editing what they can read or experience and school is meant to prepare them for that. High school kids are either driving a car or one year away, they don’t need book banners screening books (especially one taught for years) because a body part is said out loud. If we can hand them keys to a vehicle they can handle this (or I suggest looking at schools with zero Greek life of the facts of life are going to come hard and fast). When we look into a time capsule those posters will be a memory of the time they lived through and they can handle seeing Black Lives Matter, Blue lives matter, Gay lives matter, Jesus matters… whatever they want to express. If something makes you uncomfortable that’s sorta the point in art. It’s about expressing a viewpoint and you won’t always agree. And I hope in discussions everyone’s POV is honored (there were no swastikas, Klan outfits or anything considered a marker of a hate group). This is the time to read, draw and express feelings and memories while in the safety and trust to talk with teachers, peers and parents about their feelings. It’s our last chance to know and listen to how they feel about this world before they go to the mystery which is college where no, you will not have a say in anything. I think some parents have forgotten that they are not the main character on this journey, it’s their kids and they need to LISTEN and engage more than meddle and try and change the system for everyone. We all moved here for the best in education. We moved here for the best professionals. We didn’t want the “surprise of the year” of which parents would find which books and projects acceptable and the exhausting annual fight of which parents are better thinkers than others to put curriculum on the “right” path. Nobody would be happy except for those few that got their pov in the drivers seat. My kid’s teachers send me a list of all reading material prior to units (in high school I got the entire year at parents Open House night), so if you are uncomfortable with your teenager taking on material as they grow older it is available for you to pre-screen and ask for YOUR exception. It should not be banned from the rest of us who would like our kids to be well rounded, at the national norms and prepared for the world. And spoiler alert there is nothing in a book or poster that they haven’t seen 10000% worse on their moving computer in their pocket called their phones. If you were speaking about elementary or middle school, fine (and btw middle school gives readers options in units). So hopefully people are satisfied that they can read what is discussed at curriculum meeting? But those examples were hardly seen as crisis averted to the masses. And if you read about the last elections nationwide and why the BOE trended left everywhere and why every single Mother of Liberty endorsed candidate across the nation lost it was in large part to partisan parent overreach (often using suggesting parent run curriculum)and threats of book banning. If we wanted that we could move to Florida. But most are proud to be in one of the best school districts in the nation with the most talented and forward thinking (because holy cow, we need to keep our eye on the ball which is what does the future look like with AI) and patient superintendent (and administration) and these amazing teachers who have been living through a tough era for moral while holding up their professional standards. I have yet to meet a kid going to get an book to get some gratuitous reading experience, yet even if they don’t have a phone themselves you are kidding yourself if you don’t think they’ve seen far more than we have. They’ve probably seen it unwilling while targeted through an algorithm or from a “friend”. It’s like being afraid of a dog barking at you while a bear coming through your windows. And how we deal with these things in a future you cannot slow down is we engage with teenagers if we are lucky enough to have a good relationship established on trust in the first place, because again…. Nobody was giving the mature content (even though many other schools read this book in 8th grade) in elementary or middle school. Trying to get one book or project tossed is just running in quicksand because like it or not we are about to enter 2026 and that is what we are preparing high school kids for.
More transparency (provided no confidential student info is publicly shared) is typically better. I think this will prove, more demonstrably, the care, energy, and professionalism the Curriculum Committee invests in our schools. In the meantime, parents should continue to use the resources that have always been available to them, namely, syllabi that are provided, open houses, communication with teachers and administrators, etc. that tells them way ahead of time what is to be taught and gives parents the opportunity to exempt their child from assignments they find inappropriate. But I am not sure we want subsets of parents determining what is appropriate for all of our kids to learn. I certainly don’t.
Agreed, Julia. I saw a book pulled off the curriculum when my son was in middle school because a specific group of parents objected to two lines. I thought it was one of the best, most thought-provoking books he got to read and was glad that he had the opportunity before it got “banned”. There’s no such thing as a curriculum that will please everyone so please let us allow the professionals to do their jobs, which is to educate our children. Fine, let the curriculum meetings be open but please do not let them be hijacked by parents trying to protect their children from what goes on in real life.
Can you not afford to buy that book? You live in one of the richest town in the world.
All those having an interest in education owe Maria Naughton a great debt of gratitude. Those who do not have an interest in education, should. The education our young people receive will, in large measure, determine the kind of community and nation we will have in the future. Parents have primary responsibility for the well-being of their children, a responsibility that extends to the education of their children, and a responsibility entailing a concomitant right to be informed of what it is that educators are teaching their children and, where appropriate, to have meaningful input on curriculum choices.
The intensity of the opposition to Ms. Naughton’s FOIA case by the people in charge of our local and state education establishment is a troubling indication of their unfortunate hostility to those parental responsibilities and rights. Ms. Naughton persevered for five years, on her own, because she believes an important principle to be at stake–transparency in curriculum choices–and because in her judgement the law was clear, a judgement unanimously confirmed by the members of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission. We are entitled to hope that our school administrators and Board of Education members now implement changes in the process of developing and approving curriculum in good faith compliance with the law.
As a parent of two current NCHS students, I’m well informed of what my children are learning in school. It concerns me that Ms. Naughton and others who are not current parents want to impose their views about what our schools should be teaching under the camouflage of “parents rights.”
Thank you, Jim, very well said. Let’s see if they adhere to the rule of law.
Maria Naughton has been ahead of the proverbial curve on All Things Education for close to two decades now. She is gifted at explaining what might appear to be a complex issue at first glance, but then remove the intentional mumbo-jumbo for a clearer understanding. Maria was the first person in New Canaan to call attention to the long-gone Common Core curriculum and its many baked-in problems that wouldn’t benefit anyone in the long run. So it looks like it’s Naughton for the win, again.
The chorus of praise from RTC members, past or present (even a former chairman!) says a lot about the true goals of this effort. Let’s keep education in the hands of educators — and keep the partisans out of it.
Guess your in favor of taking away parental rights, keeping inappropriate books in the school library and indoctrination of our children. Are you saying only RTC members current and past care about keeping the word Childhood in Education?
Describe ‘parental rights’ and then provide examples of the school system making an effort to take them away.
Then please be more clear on exactly what the children are being indoctrinated with. Are they being indoctrinated to blindly pledge allegiance to an inanimate object in kindergarten? Is being told that each kid matters and belongs to the school community a bridge too far?
I have kids in the school system and have all the access to curriculum, teachers, administrators, coaches, and support staff to make sure I know what is going on at school and to flag issues that may come up for my children. That is parental rights and it ends with my children.
Parental Rights: My ability, as a parent, to decide that I don’t want my kid to have access in the school to a book that I think is disgusting (Gender Queer, among many others). That is just an example. Do you need a formal definition? Word games.
Indoctrination? How about the 7th grade Challenge class covering the Bill of Rights, but only covering 7 of the ten Amendments? The ones left out? You can guess. Yeah, apparently states don’t have rights, and nor do we have the right to bear arms.
How about a unit on the Supreme Court that focuses on the importance of diversity on the count, and only talks about KBJ and not Clarence Thomas?
How about Ruth Bader Ginsberg being highlighted prominently on the school’s walls, but no mention of Antonin Scalia?
How about our own head librarian posting multiple videos about America being racist oor about parents getting in the way of DEI?
Happy to go on and on if you want.
“Our children,” Roy? What I’m in favor of is keeping partisan busybodies out of my kids’ education. As far as I can tell, none of the following people have kids in NCHS: Maria Naughton (RTC elected official), You, James Yao* (RTC member), James McLaughlin (former RTC chair), John Walsh (past RTC nominee). So spare me your supposed concerns about “parental rights.”
*I’m aware Mr. Yao has younger kids in NC schools.
This issue was first raised in 2017 when Mrs. Naughton was on the Board of Education and had children in the public schools. The bottom line is the school district has been breaking the law since 2008 when this statute was put in place , not whether or not she had children in when the ruling came down.
Kudos to Maria Naughton and her years of service to our town.
I believe this is good news, and for the reasons not mentioned
either in the letter or in the comments above. I am talking about
mathematics and sciences.
Developing curriculum in these disciplines has always been a challenge.
I would highly recommend a testimony by the famous American physicist
and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman (“Judging books by their covers”,
from his autobiography “Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman).
He describes his involvement in advising the curriculum committee in
the State of California. It was some 50 years ago, but his entertaining and yet serious recollections
are still relevant and painfully recognizable today as well.
In the same California, a well-intentioned change to the math curriculum was
proposed a few years ago. Many mathematicians and other STEM professionals
reacted with a critical open letter
https://sites.google.com/view/k12mathmatters/home
(I must stress out that there are no partisan politics involved as far as I can tell.)
Those examples emphasize that openness and thoughtfulness in
curriculum development are important, as it is quite easy to have the best
of intentions and yet cause damage for years to come.
A lot of New Canaan parents are STEM professionals
(for example, I am an applied mathematician,
and my wife is an embedded software engineer).
I believe that providing a reasonable additional oversight
over curriculum development in
mathematics and sciences will be beneficial to everybody involved,
especially when it comes to changes –
those should always be treated with utmost caution.
Respectfully,
Andrei Osipov
Andrei,
I think I understand where you are coming from. However, while STEM is perhaps the most ridiculous example of where the schools are going astray, kids are most harmed in the humanities and social sciences.
If your kids are great at STEM, it makes sense to focus on that battle. But the 40% of kids who today are depressed, suicidal, or suffering from some form of mental illness, including gender dysphoria, it is the English and history classes that got them there.
Not only do parents not have access to the course syllabuses, but they do also not have access to the library catalogue. Only if I ask my kids for their passwords, and they agree (teens don’t usually do that), am I able to see the craziness that the schools are pushing on our kids.
Further, I know that many teachers purged their syllabuses of anything that could be questioned last year. They intentionally hid what they knew would be questioned.
Unfortunately, our two strongest advocates for transparency on the BOE are now gone.
Fortunately, for me, it is the young parents who have moved into town, and not me, that will have to deal will the consequences of their votes.
Eric: Well said. Thank you
With the change in Bd of Ed and the steady hand of our administrators and teachers, I think our #1 school district is in good hands.
Thanks to the Democrats who put “A” back into Education!
Well here’s the thing
Democratic or Republican on the BOE
Should have never let this go to the
Commission. They had the power to say
Yes to the request for open meeting
But again they work for the school administrator which is the problem
on a lot of things that go on with the
BOE
It’s suppose to work the other
way the administrator work for the BOE
But not our BOE
So how much money did they wastes
fighting it