Goshen, Indiana superintendent apologizes for misrepresenting comments revealed in AIM investigation
June 13, 2023
Goshen Community Schools Superintendent Steve Hope apologized at Monday night’s board meeting for misrepresentation of comments made by Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Tracey Noe in an undercover video released by Accuracy in Media on April 12.
In a statement during the board meeting, Hope said of his review of the full-length interview, “When the video was made, I met with Tracey the following day. In my discussion with her, she thought that she had made the statement that we frequently hear at Goshen Community Schools which was that we do not teach CRT but that we follow Indiana State Standards, which is true. This a factually true and accurate statement. In reviewing the recent video, I discovered that Ms. Noe had misremembered. She did not make that statement on the video. In hindsight, I should have waited to review it prior to publicly releasing the statement. I want to apologize to the board for my mistake.”
In the video, Noe claimed the district changed the categorization of a “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee” to a work group, to avoid certain public concern. The following day, the district issued a press release following the release of the video. GCS Superintendent Steve Hope explained asserted in the release that the undercover reporters took Noe’s comments out of context, and that the district does not teach CRT, but that Noe would be placed on administrative leave for “misrepresenting Goshen Community Schools”
“The only thing Mrs. Noe is guilty of is making sure every student has quality resources, a guaranteed literacy curriculum, and outstanding teaching,” Hope read in his original statement. “Few have done more to ensure that every third grader in Goshen is reading on grade level than Mrs. Noe. Missing from that video clip was an emphatic statement from Mrs. Noe that we do not teach CRT and that we only concentrate on the Indiana standards. Of course, including those statements would have been truthful and transparent and not feeding the flames of divisive politics.”