SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — More than a hundred people showed up to the Sarasota School Board meeting on Tuesday to protest a proposed contract with Vermillion Education.
A group called Support our Schools says Vermillion Education is run by Jordan Adams, a 31-year-old former Director of Curriculum at Hillsdale College.
Hillsdale College is a Christian, conservative school based in Michigan. The proposed contract would call for Vermillion to examine textbooks, lesson plans, district discipline policies and practices, and the collective bargaining agreement with the District’s teachers union.
“We are going to see a whitewashed version of American History. We are going to see a very carefully orchestrated version of what books the children can read,” said Mary Ginley, who once worked as a teacher in the Sarasota County School District.
She is concerned the Vermillion contract will bring a new focus on education that will ignore many school groups.
“The child who is black, or gay, or has gay parents, or is Latino is never going to see themselves in a book or a story. What kind of children are we going to raise in a world where we have re-written American history,” said Ginley.
Rex Ingerick is with the Sarasota Classified Teachers Association and says the head of Vermillion has little experience with public education.
“It really isn’t reflective of the mainstream Sarasota County public, I’m a strong believer in public education and we should be reflective of our community,” Ingerick said.
The Sarasota County School District announced before Tuesday’s meeting that a vote on the contract has been pushed back to a meeting later in April.
