The Charleston County School Board overhauled much of the district’s Health Advisory Committee — yet again.

There are 10 new members on the 13-person panel that reviews the district’s health and sexual education curriculum. That includes four new appointees to replace members ousted by the school board in a narrow vote. Another six people were added to fill vacancies on the committee.

Bylaws for the Health Advisory Committee state that it is to include two students, two teachers, two parents, two medical professionals, two community members and three clergy members. Members serve for three years and can be renewed for a second term.

New appointees include Thaddeus John Bell, medical professional, physician; Ryan Byrne, medical professional, adolescent psychiatrist; Maria Nesteroad, parent; Rev. Nelson Rivers, clergy member. They replace Rabbi Greg Kanter, clergy member, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim; Bonnie Cleaveland, medical professional, psychologist; Catherine Kaiser, medical professional, nurse; and Lisa Thomas Ross, parent.

Added to fill existing vacant positions are: Amy Black, community member; Christina Braun, teacher; Jackson Darby, student; Denisse Mogollon, clergy; Mary Kate Rumph, teacher; and Patricia White, community member.

Penn Doucher, a senior at Lucy Beckham High School in Mount Pleasant, survived an attempt to be removed from the committee.

In addition to Doucher, parent Michelle Leach and the Rev. Jeremy Rutledge remained in their positions on the committee.

Rutledge said he isn’t entirely sure what to expect with the committee now, especially with the removal of Cleaveland, a psychologist and the committee’s chair, and Ross, a psychology professor at the College of Charleston.

“I am concerned that we’ve lost a lot of leadership and experience,” he added.

A senior pastor at Circular Congregational Church and in his sixth year on the committee, Rutledge initially thought he also would be removed after seeing a board document in September that included his name. But his removal wasn’t called for at the Nov. 13 school board meeting.

In the last couple of months, however, Rutledge said no one from the school board has reached out to him to explain what’s happening.

Planning the changes

The intended overhaul to the Health Advisory Committee became public at a school board meeting on Sept. 25, when board member Ed Kelley announced he wanted to appoint 12 people to the 13-person group. He was supported by four colleagues, with the board passing the measure by a narrow 5-4 vote.

At that same meeting, the same five board members placed now-former Superintendent Eric Gallien on leave and decided against officially hiring Michelle Simmons as the district’s chief academic officer.

An onslaught of criticism followed, with school principals, local legislators from both sides of the aisle, Charleston-area mayors and Gov. Henry McMaster all chastising the Charleston school board. Many criticized the board for its lack of transparency by frequently meeting behind closed doors in executive session.

A lawsuit followed in mid-October from the ousted Health Advisory Committee members. Naming the district school board and the five individual board members who supported the changes — Kelley, Pam McKinney, Carlotte Bailey, Keith Grybowski and Leah Whatley — the former members claimed they were wrongfully terminated and that the board had violated state open meeting laws.

Kelley, who serves as the board’s policy liaison, said at the Nov. 13 meeting that the changes he sought were sparked by the curriculum that the committee brought forward. He claimed CCSD curriculum teaches about abortion, making it “wholly inappropriate as well as out of line with standards defined by the South Carolina state law” — which prohibits students from being taught about abortion at school.

He also claimed the curriculum taught about alternative genders and spoke positively about anal and oral sex.

Holly Kut, the district’s instructional specialist for health and physical education, said the curriculum is age-appropriate and doesn’t teach about abortion, gender identity or sexual orientation.

She also pointed out that the Health Advisory Committee, which she oversees, doesn’t write the curriculum; the district’s curriculum and instruction department does, then the school board approves it.

School board member Courtney Waters also noted the parts Kelley referred to, which he claimed taught about abortion, came from the general curriculum from Advocates for Youth, a sex education nonprofit, and not from the actual curriculum Charleston adapted and uses.

Board member Darlene Roberson said she found it very disheartening that the board was going against the curriculum and instruction department’s decisions.

“You’re saying that your knowledge, Mr. Kelley, is greater than all of these people that have the expertise in the area. That’s very concerning to me,” she added.

Discussions held in public

Unlike with its first vote in September, the board on Nov. 13 discussed changes to the committee in open session and voted on each individual removal or addition.

The discussion left the board’s four-member minority faction, which consists of Waters, Roberson, Daron Calhoun II and Carol Tempel, visibly frustrated at times as the five-member majority continued to support many of Kelley’s proposed changes.

Grybowski, newly elected as board chair, said they were entitled to make the changes as committee members serve at the board’s pleasure.

Whatley, also in favor of Kelley’s proposals, said changing the committee would allow them to diversify it; a couple of the committee applicants were Hispanic, she noted.

Still, as the board went through each change, Waters and Calhoun repeatedly asked Kelley for specifics on why he was adding or removing certain committee members. Kelley declined to provide more details than what he had already said about the curriculum.

Roberson noted that a couple of people Kelley had brought forward had not applied to the specific positions that they were being appointed to on the committee. Kelley said those individuals were qualified to fill those roles.

At a few points in the meeting, several of the minority-faction members proposed their own changes. Roberson, for instance, made the motion to have Rivers appointed to the committee.

Rivers spoke during the public comment period and called on the board to change how they were treating the district’s children. He then was escorted out of the meeting by police after he refused to stop speaking past the allotted comment period. He was later allowed to return to the room.

The motion for Rivers’ appointment passed with four board members voting in favor, three against and two abstaining.

The minority faction also succeeded in their effort to get Bell appointed to the board. He is a family practice physician and founder of Closing the Gap in Health Care, Inc., a non-profit organization focused on decreasing health disparities by providing health education for African Americans and other underserved populations.

Rutledge said that ahead of the meeting he found the proposed changes to the committee alarming. He also had concerns about some of the people Kelley wanted to appoint.

Still, some of the amendments made, such as the additions of Bell and Rivers, Rutledge liked. He was also grateful they kept Doucher as a student representative.

“Every time Penn spoke, they helped us,” Rutledge said.