ST. CHARLES COUNTY — The Francis Howell School District will bring back a video learning platform about a year after the district’s school board scrapped it based on accusations it pushed “social agendas.â€
The current board, whose majority flipped after an election in April, voted late last week to renew a subscription to BrainPop. The mostly subscription-based website explains educational topics through animated videos.
BrainPop was one of several culture-war clashes that occurred in Francis Howell under the previous, majority-conservative school board. The pending return of the video platform is one of the first moves the school board’s new makeup has taken in a promise to move away from the conflicts.
Francis Howell had used BrainPop for over 10 years before the previous board voted not to renew its subscription in June 2024. Several other local districts, including Wentzville, Fort Zumwalt, Rockwood, Parkway and Mehlville, use BrainPop.
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Francis Howell’s former school board vice president, Randy Cook, argued last year that BrainPop injected “far-left ideologies†into its content.
One video, Cook wrote on Facebook, included a subject wearing a gay Pride sticker on her jacket, “demonstrating how BrainPOP is subtlety injecting social agendas into their videos.†Another “glorified†former U.S. President Barack Obama while “poking fun†at his predecessor, George W. Bush, Cook said. He also chided how BrainPop “never fails to mention†which founding fathers owned slaves.
Cook said in an interview at the time that he became aware of BrainPop after a parent complained their child watched a Black Lives Matter video in class.
“Apparently this child’s parent was a police officer and came home asking the other parent about whether police were racist and didn’t like Black people,†Cook said.
Cook lost his bid for reelection in April. The change in his seat, along with that of former board president Adam Bertrand, flipped the board to a new 4-3 majority, with members elected on conservative platforms now in the minority.
On Thursday, Francis Howell’s new board members spoke in favor of BrainPop.
“This type of service is the future,†said Sarah Oelke.
“I believe in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), because you don’t have public schools without those three things,†said Carolie Owens, who won a seat in 2024.
Board member Jane Puszkar wanted to table the vote to renew BrainPop.
With new federal mandates to rid schools of DEI, Puszkar worried BrainPop would pose a risk to Francis Howell’s federal funding.
“You can roll your eyes and say that’s not gonna happen, but unless we have some verification that all the videos that these kids are being exposed to don’t contain CRT, DEI, [or] whatever the current federal guidelines are, then we stand the risk of being docked financially,†Puszkar said.
The board ended up voting 4-3 to pay $61,500 for a BrainPop subscription for next school year.
In the past, Francis Howell educators used BrainPop for social studies, science, English and math classes. Videos focused on supply and demand, the water cycle, parts of speech and computer programming, among . The platform also provides quizzes and games designed to help students retain information.
Some board members on Thursday questioned how the district would evaluate BrainPop’s effectiveness and whether it was worth the cost.
“Not every school uses this resource, and somehow they’re still able to teach,†said board member Ron Harmon.
The Francis Howell school board considers letting the Rev. John K. Amanchukwu speak, on Thursday, May 15, 2025. After the board decided to follow its policy, Amanchukwu protested and was kicked out of the meeting.
