GOLDEN, Colo. — Students and teachers fighting a plan to promote patriotism and downplay civil disobedience in some U.S. history courses in suburban Denver packed a school board meeting Thursday where the controversial changes could face a vote.

Turnout was so high that the teachers union streamed video from the meeting room – which holds 200 people – onto a big screen in the parking lot outside.

About 300 students, parents and teachers opposed to the proposal rallied in the parking lot and marched along nearby streets before the meeting.

Carole Morenz, holding a small American flag and a sign that said “History matters. Know the truth,” traveled from Pueblo because she said she’s worried the change in approach to teaching history could be the “biggest cultural shift of our lifetime.”

“They will lose the knowledge of what made America great,” said Morenz, adding that she has been concerned about problems in education since she began homeschooling her children in the 1980s.

Dozens of students took the podium, with just a minute each to speak. They delivered 40,000 signatures they say they gathered from around the country.

Students in a majority of the 17 high schools in Colorado’s second-largest school district have left classes in droves over the past few weeks, waving signs and flags in protests organized by word of mouth and social media.

Many teachers also have been calling in sick, forcing school to be canceled some days.

“I respect the right of our students to express their opinions in a peaceful manner,” Superintendent Dan McMinimee said. “I do, however, prefer that our students stay in class. I have met with many students and answered their questions.”

The protests started Sept. 19, the day after the Jefferson County school board proposed creating a committee to review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”

The board’s majority of three new conservative members were backed by Republicans last year in an officially nonpartisan election.