D-86 Winners Have 'Mandate' On Curriculum Issues

HINSDALE, IL — In their campaigns, the four winners of Tuesday's Hinsdale High School District 86 election made it clear they were unhappy with the changes to the science and math curriculums since 2019.

In interviews Wednesday, the winners — Jeff Waters, Peggy James, Debbie Levinthal and Terri Walker — said they want to move quickly to review the changes and possibly reverse them.

In late 2019, the school board approved reversing the traditional sequence of science courses. Under the new sequence, physics would be taught to freshmen, chemistry to sophomores and biology to juniors, with earth science concepts involved in all three courses.

Last fall, the board voted to end the traditional curriculum of Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2. Instead, the district would offer Math 1, Math 2 and Math 3, integrating algebra, geometry and statistics concepts into all three.

Critics, including the election winners, question whether evidence exists to demonstrate the success of these changes in other districts. The curriculum proposals sparked heated debates, prompting many of the 10 school board candidates to run in the first place.

Waters said the new board would have to see how far down the road the district is with the curriculum changes, which are being phased in. He said he thought it was in the best interest of the community to reverse the board's decisions on curriculum.

Waters contended the voters gave the election winners a "mandate" to make revisions.

"These curriculum changes need to be addressed and possibly reversed," he said. "The data to support the changes to both science and math has not been presented, and yet there is a large amount of data to oppose it."

Levinthal said the board's curriculum decisions were among the motivating forces for her to run for school board.

"I would like to see them looked at and reassessed to see if they are in the best interest of all students," she said.

Walker and James also said they would like to revisit the curriculum issues.

The board and administration have advocated the changes, saying they have resulted in academic success elsewhere. Days before the election, the district sent a mailer to residents that, in part, promoted the curriculum changes.

The winners will make up the majority of the seven-member board. They take office May 3.

Remaining on the board are Kathleen Hirsman, Cynthia Hanson and Erik Held.