The Issaquah School District (ISD) will delay adopting a new high school math curriculum for a year. The delay will allow the district to review the process used thus far, as well as to wait to hear what the state decides.

“I am very disappointed that the state has interjected itself into the process causing much consternation and virtually paralyzing districts’ ability to select math materials and move forward at this point,” said Superintendent Steve Rasmussen during the June 24 school board meeting.

The district’s math curriculum review committee’s recommendation of the Discovery’s math program stands, but until the state can reconcile the current issues ISD has decided it is better to wait and not spend money to adopt a system, which when the dust settles, may not fit with the state’s standards.

At the state level, the State Board of Education has offered one set of reviews and recommendations on math curriculum, which meet the new Core 24 standards, and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has offered a different set of recommendations. OSPI has said more research is needed to align the two organization’s views on recommended curricula, but that currently no funding is available to pay for the research.

For the time being the district says it will work with teachers to fill the holes in the current curriculum to meet the new standards, approved this spring, to continue to provide the best possible education.

Rasmussen said putting everything on hold will also allow the district to address grievances from parents and the community who they were not involved enough in the overall process.

“In this environment we’ve not done enough to engage the community,” he said addressing the fact that math adoption got somewhat lost amidst the budgetary issues. “It’s prudent to wait until the dust settles.”

Board president Brian Deagle said in the future he would also like to discuss whether the district should be looking to do more than the state standards require to better prepare students for competitive college and job markets.

“Do our kids need to know more than the state standards?” he asked at the meeting.

Kelly Munn, a parent and member of the district’s PTSA, said the community’s issue with the math adoption, which has been a topic of discussion for months, was not about the individual curricula choices, but whether or not the district was headed in the right direction with the math program.

The district will work with teachers this summer to prepare for fall classes and revisit the math adoption issue mid-school year.

For more information visit the district’s Web site