POULSBO — Beginning next year, the North Kitsap School District’s secondary math curriculum will begin to take on a new unified approach under the College Preparatory Math curriculum.

But at the NKSD’s regular board meeting May 11, support for the curriculum was anything but united.

“One of my major concerns is we’re going into a curriculum without the full backing of our community,” said board director Tom Anderson. “Nobody, outside of the district, has come up to me and said, ‘We think this is a great curriculum.’ I don’t even feel all the math teachers are on ship with this.”

Anderson and board director Ed Strickland cast the dissenting votes in a 3-2 split decision to move ahead with the implementation of the curriculum, one year at a time, starting at the algebra I level.

The College Preparatory Mathematics curriculum is a group work oriented, hands-on curriculum which will be the capstone to a district-wide math curriculum transition aiming to align students’ collective mathematical tracks from kindergarten through high school.

Three years ago, a teacher-led Math Adoption Committee formed and began the research and groundwork for the change, said NKSD director of student learning MaryLou Murphy.

In 2004, the group implemented the “Investigations in Number, Data and Space” curriculum at the kindergarten through fifth grade levels of the district. Then, in 2005, at the junior highs, the “Connected Math Project” curriculum started.

The school board’s split decision May 11 begins the process for the CPM curriculum to finish the articulation. However, the curriculum will be watched under a scrutinizing eye as it is implemented over the course of the next few years.

“There needs to be some way we can see if the results are better before we take the next step,” board president Catherine Ahl said, asking for a measure of progress after the curriculum’s first year of implementation.

Even so, it may take up to three years to collect significant usable data concerning the curriculum’s results, NKSD Supt. Gene Medina noted.

“I want to know test data that shows that algebra I CPM is better or worse than traditional algebra I,” Strickland said. “Here’s the problem: It’s not the curriculum, it’s the instruction.”

Defending NKHS staff, Murphy said she feels North Kitsap has excellent teachers working as hard as they can, but “they need common curriculum and time to talk and collaborate. These instructional materials promote that.”

The four community members who addressed the board prior to Murphy’s presentation said they feel the CPM curriculum does not promote higher level mathematics.

A common concern has echoed throughout this selection process that the CPM curriculum may sacrifice the district’s accelerated students’ access to the materials they need.

Murphy assured the board that the accelerated track will still be in place for those students, and noted that the district’s secondary math teachers will be meeting June 1 to discuss the nuts and bolts of how to keep that track alive.

Though a professor’s study — from CPM’s state of origin, California — backs up the community concern about the curriculum, the board moved forward with its implementation rather than scrap the work that the Math Adoption Committee has undertaken.

“I’m going to support this because it’s our teachers who will be teaching this curriculum who have selected it,” board director Dan Delaney said. “It may not be the perfect answer, but at least we’re moving forward.”