NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Months after a Bible-study program landed in front of New Hanover County Schools, the school board has set a timeline for gathering feedback and deciding whether to allow the program to transport students off campus during the day for Christian teachings.
The board of education voted 6-1, with Josie Barnhart dissenting, for the board to discuss and potentially vote on a memorandum of understanding with LifeWise Academy on Tuesday.
The board also agreed to hold a public hearing in the interim, where members of LifeWise, organizers of the local chapter, school employees and the general public can voice their concerns, questions or support for the program.
READ MORE: NHCS entertaining MOU with Bible study program, district says board member made connection
ALSO: LifeWise steering committee members address NHCS program, community concerns
LifeWise is a nonprofit organization that provides Christian curriculum to local community groups looking to start a LifeWise chapter.
The local chapter trying to partner with New Hanover County Schools is run by a steering committee made up of members from three area churches; two committee members, Wayne and Carolyn Polston; the latter told Port City Daily Thursday committee representatives are planning on speaking at the upcoming public hearing.
The district has been discussing an MOU with LifeWise since Superintendent Chris Barnes notified the board in March he had been approached by the group. At the time, NHCS said board member Pat Bradford and an unnamed parent passed along LifeWise’s contact information to Barnes, though the Polstons’ told Port City Daily they were unaware of any involvement the board member had with LifeWise.
On Thursday, Bradford pushed for the district to solicit a presentation from LifeWise before taking a vote. After board member Judy Justice suggested they hear presentations from everyone, the board voted on hearing from LifeWise only; Bradford was the only one in favor.
The board’s agreement on the timeline to a LifeWise decision was made after prodding from board member Tim Merrick, who was the first to broach the topic at the beginning of the meeting. He brought up concerns that LifeWise was added to the June 2 regular meeting agenda without warning. He said when the meeting agenda was first provided to board members last week, the LifeWise item wasn’t on there. Thus, Merrick said he told concerned parents that the board wouldn’t be discussing it at the upcoming meeting. The item was then added on Sunday before the agenda was published for the public Tuesday morning.
“If it is a work in progress, it has been written down, it is public information, and so you know the public does have a right to know,” Merrick said. “I’ll tell you, the public comes to me on a regular basis, says, ‘OK, what was published, we need to know because we can prepare ourselves, we can come and be educated and have a good conversation with our school board.’”
However, his motion to move the discussion off of next week’s agenda and push it to July failed; all other board members voted against it.
“This is not a surprise,” Barnhart said. “This is something that got introduced months ago that we all agreed on, saying prior to us considering we needed more information — here we are.”
The board then moved on to discussing meeting length; Merrick brought up LifeWise again, suggesting the 15 minutes allotted for the item wasn’t enough to address all concerns. He also took issue with it being placed under old business, since the board has the option to vote on whether to create an MOU (though the MOU would need to come back for final approval).
However, his push to move the item to information-only initially faltered; in response, Merrick said the public should take the failure as a signal the board wants to possibly vote on the LifeWise MOU.
“This board probably has an ulterior motive for what to do next week,” Merrick said, as other board members objected to the assumption.
Merrick brought up the motion again after Chair Pete Wildeboer suggested the board move the vote to August and gather feedback in the meantime. On the second round, Merrick’s motion passed; Superintendent Barnes will provide an update on the information and correspondence he’s received about LifeWise during next week’s meeting, though the board’s discussion and vote will be held until August.
It was David Perry who suggested the district also hold a town hall, though the board decided to call it a public hearing instead.
Ultimately, if a partnership agreement is signed with NHCS, elementary students whose parents opt in to the program would be transported once a week off-campus for 30-minute Bible study during an elective period. This would be at no cost to the parents or district.
Many parent concerns have centered on the loss of instructional time, even if the time was in an elective period; parents have also expressed discomfort with how close the program, though legal, treads to violating the First Amendment, which bars government entities from promoting a religion.
A 1952 Supreme Court decision, Zorach v. Clauson, found that allowing public school students to leave school for part of the day to receive off-site religious instruction did not violate the Constitution. The case mandated the program must be held off school premises, barred any government funds from being used for the program, and required the program to gain parental permission.
Though no tax dollars are being put toward the program, some parents have argued staff time in escorting students to LifeWise’s transport and scheduling assignments outside of students missing class time is an indirect incursion of religion into schools.
Superintendent Barnes has not offered a recommendation on the MOU with LifeWise; he stated Tuesday the board has not asked him for one, only information.
Though, when the partnership option was brought up in March, he said “this door is either open or it’s closed,” meaning any faith-based group would be able to request an MOU with the district. Several board members encouraged the board to consider other groups as well.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at [email protected].
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