FWISD trustees voted on a resolution about school safety. It was actually about sex-ed.

Fort Worth ISD trustees are facing criticism this week after the wrong title was listed on an agenda for a resolution last month that convened a School Health Advisory Council for the purposes of recommending a new human sexuality curriculum following updates to state standards.

Trustees voted at a December board meeting on a resolution “Concerning Implementation and Enforcement of School Safety Measures.”

But upon closer inspection, the resolution was actually about convening the School Health Advisory Council for the purpose of recommending a curriculum on sex education.

The board voted, with no discussion, to rescind that resolution at a special board meeting Tuesday night.

Parents and a former student lambasted the mistake in public comments.

Carlos Turcios, who has also spoken out against a proposed sex ed curriculum, said the district needs to “get its act together” following the snafu.

Claudia Garibay, a spokesperson for the district, said the title was an unintentional error, adding that the district will “continue its collaborative review process of all items presented to the board in an effort to minimize such errors in the future.”

The action taken Tuesday bars the advisory council from making any recommendations on sex ed until another vote can be held. The administration expects that to take place later this spring, Garibay said.

“This rescission, combined with the Superintendent’s commitment for the SHAC to have the time to prioritize by-laws, communication protocols and training, allows the SHAC to provide more comprehensive advisement to the Board moving forward,” she said in a statement. “It also means the SHAC will not be authorized to address the issue of the Human Sexuality curriculum review until these foundational pieces are completed and a new resolution is passed by the Board.”

Work that has already been completed by the advisory council on the topic “is only informational as the resolution is the first formal step in the legally required process.”

The Texas education code as well as local policy require the School Health Advisory Council to be convened “to follow an established process for the identification and recommendation of curriculum materials consistent with the State-approved TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) requirements,” whenever the health curriculum is updated or implemented.

Other responsibilities of the council, which is made up mostly of parents with some staff and community members, include recommending to the board the number of hours of instruction to be provided in health education, curriculum appropriate for specific grade levels, physical education, nutritional services and instruction to prevent the use of tobacco.

New state standards, which were approved in 2020, are the first major revisions of sexual education in Texas since 1998. The standards include new additions discussing sexually transmitted diseases and birth control for the first time.