Documents obtained by parental rights organization Parents Defending Education (PDE) found that the Watertown Unified School District in Wisconsin received over $1 million to promote “social emotional learning.”
According to PDE, the grant was provided by the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation to hire an employee to oversee Social Emotional Learning (SEL) initiatives in the district. This includes promoting so-called “health equity” in the area.
According to the documents obtained through PDE’s records request, more than 14 grants dating back to 2017 were received. The majority of the money from the grants was directed toward SEL initiatives and hiring of staff (via PDE):
One grant that PDE received had a start date of September 1, 2022, and end date of June 20, 2023. This grant was for $100,000 “to implement WUSD Mental Health / SEL Coordinator.” Another grant that PDE received had a start date of April 1, 2023, and end date of June 20, 2025. The grant was for $100,000 also “to implement WUSD Mental Health / SEL Coordinator.”
The district additionally provided PDE with a 2024-2025 employee contract for Kenda Roman. The contract had a start date of August 26, 2024, for a term of nine and a half months. The base salary was $85,500 with a sign on bonus of $3,000. This bonus is “in exchange for agreeing to work for the District for at least consecutive two (2) years commencing with 2024-2025 school year.”
The district provided PDE with another document labeled “Roman Joins WUSD as Mental Health Coordinator.”
A 100-day plan from Roman included a goal to implement SEL into the school district’s curriculum, specifically, to “teach empathy and cooperation, reinforcing these lessons with group activities that foster teamwork and positive social behaviors.”
"It's amazing how much money school districts waste on edu-fads that sound nice but don't actually help students. On the contrary, Social Emotional Learning or SEL is often turns out to be an ideology-infused effort to turn students into foot soldiers for social justice and collectivism. Teaching empathy sounds good until the lesson is about how girls must accept males in their private spaces in order to show empathy and be inclusive," PDE Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi told Townhall.
