East Lansing Board of Education President Chris Martin and Superintendent Dori Leyko at the Jan. 22, 2024 East Lansing Board of Education meeting. (Dylan Lees for ELi)

School Board Approves Construction Contracts, Sex Ed Curriculum

The East Lansing school board approved the launch of a pilot sexual education curriculum at its Monday, March 10 meeting. The new lesson plans would replace the existing curriculum, Michigan Model for Health, with one called Rights, Respect and Responsibility.

Anne Scott with the East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) Sex Education Advisory Board (SEAB) appeared at the meeting to discuss the pilot.  She said the initiative is a sampling of the full curriculum with the goal of obtaining feedback from educators and students.

In its report, the SEAB said the pilot meets the group’s criteria for “inclusiveness, comprehensiveness, digital availability, and alignment with Michigan state requirements and national standards for HIV prevention and sexual health education.”  The pilot includes different lessons for grades 7-8 and for grades 9-12 with themes of STI/HIV and pregnancy prevention, sexual violence prevention and responsible decision-making.

The school board also approved 13 bids totaling just over $2 million dollars for the construction of the district’s new administration building.  The bids were all awarded to Michigan-based companies with most in the district’s backyard, including Moore Trosper Construction of Holt and the William Reichenbach Company out of Okemos.

Joseph Lorenz of Clark Construction was present at the meeting, saying that his team is working with Consumers Energy to disconnect the electricity and natural gas to the existing building before demolition, with most of the construction planned for the summer.

This building on Towar Avenue, which is owned by ELPS, will soon be demolished to allow for the construction of a new district administration building. (Julie Seraphinoff for ELi)

Another action item included the approval of a new course at the high school in video game design. The course is the product of a student interest survey and will be taught by Orion Smith of the Technology Education department.

The video game design course will be the latest addition to the district’s expanding catalogue of technology classes. Over the last five years, the district has expanded from three to eight technology classes, Computer Applications Teacher Kevin Mayes told the board. 

“I love that you’re offering them in the building and the students aren’t having to leave or do something online,” Board President Chris Martin said. 

The board went into closed session for approximately 40 minutes to “consider security planning to address the safety of the students and staff.”

The school board next meets April 14.