Lubin addresses Stevenson criticism

Stevenson High School board President Bruce Lubin responded to recent public criticism of the school’s financial decisions and reading-list offerings with an impassioned, 10-minute speech Monday night.

Lubin defended the school board’s fiscal choices and the curriculum choices of Stevenson’s educators in his statement, which was read to a packed audience that overflowed into the hall outside the boardroom.

“This board of education and previous boards have been judicious and thoughtful in the spending of taxpayers’ dollars,” Lubin said. “The decisions we have made over the years have led to extraordinary positive financial evaluations of Stevenson High School.”

The money-related portion of Lubin’s remarks were prompted by complaints from some residents about the board’s decision in December to raise the district’s tax levy — the maximum amount of tax revenue it can charge residents — by 2.7 percent. But at that same meeting the board agreed to return 100 percent of any actual tax increase to residents, a move officials have said would reduce the typical District 125 portion of the tax bill by 1 percent.

Lubin stood by the board’s decision Monday. While it doesn’t increase taxes today, increasing the levy allows the district to collect more money in the future, if needed, he said.

“Had the board of education not passed the levy, we would significantly handicap our long-term financial planning process,” Lubin said. “In these scary financial times when both state funds and federal funds are at risk, we must maintain our flexibility to get through these continued rough waters.”

Lubin eventually turned his attention to the recent complaints about the curriculum.

At that same December meeting, some residents complained about a novel on some students’ summer reading lists and a short story assigned in some classes.

One resident attacked the novel, “The Flamingo Rising,” as X-rated. The same resident said the short story, “The Casual Carpool,” went against his family’s values.

At the following month’s board meeting, a resident requested the board form a parental curriculum committee that would review and approve curriculum and reading choices and report to the board.

On Monday night, Lubin rejected that request.

“While the board remains committed to protecting the best interests of our students, we do so realizing that protecting students and educating them is not best accomplished by censoring the curriculum and limiting students’ exposure to the issues and ideas that are shaping the world around them,” Lubin said.

The other board members and audience members sat silently while Lubin read his remarks, which he said were on behalf of the entire board.