Elyria Schools passes policy limiting religious release time (and previous reporting)

ELYRIA TWP. — The Elyria Board of Education will change its released time policy, heavily restricting the times at which students can be released from class for religious instruction. The change, passed by a unanimous vote by the Board at its meeting on Wednesday, will classify all graded courses as "core curriculum," blocking released time for religious instruction during any class period. Superintendent Ann Schloss announced that the Board would vote on the update to the district's 2015 policy at the beginning of the meeting and was met with applause from a large audience of community members. "The newly added line is the district deems all graded courses as core curriculum, including but not limited to courses that have any state-approved learning standards," Schloss said. State law allows for released time for religious instruction but only during non-core classes, with parental approval and off of school property. "We felt that core curriculum was not defined, the state does not define it, so it's being defined by our Board of Education," Schloss said. The only non-core times Elyria students can be released under the new policy are lunch and recess. Schloss also said the district will only sign students out to their legal guardians, not a third-party program. Only religious instruction released time is impacted. "We need time with our kiddos," Schloss said after the meeting. "And that means not disrupting their schedules, keeping young students on a regular schedule is so important. That even includes lunchtime. They aren't just eating during lunch but also learning; learning how to converse and socialize with their classmates." The crowd on Wednesday, unusually large for a Board meeting held during summer, was drawn almost universally by concerns over LifeWise Academy, a Christian education program that uses released time to teach children about the Bible during school hours. LifeWise is based in Hilliard and has been making significant inroads in districts across Ohio and beyond. The organization is currently attempting to set up a program in Elyria, drawing criticism from many parents on social media. Schloss also emphasized that even when programs did take kids out of Elyria Schools for religious instruction, they were not affiliated or partnered with the district in any way. "There's a lot of misinformation going on," Schloss said. "None of these religious entities are partnered or affiliated with the Elyria City School District. This is a decision between the parent and those entities." The vote was not held until near the end of the meeting, and after Schloss shared her update the audience seemed relieved but still vocal. Several members of the public spoke to the Board, thanking them for making the change but encouraging them to do more to keep LifeWise from entering the district. Parent Melissa Gorski said her primary concern was about the school handing off students to people that it had not independently vetted and approved. She read the LifeWise release parents must sign which promises not to sue the organization, and said she had more extensive vetting to assist in the school than LifeWise instructors receive. "I got fingerprinted to help staple papers for our second-grade teachers," she said. "That's not a burden, that tells me that anybody else I see in that building is safe, too. I know they're doing what they need to do … We cannot say the same for the people who will be in charge of our children in this program. You (the Board) did what I came here to ask, and I thank you. But I would ask a little more, get this information out there and keep them away." Gorski pointed to the widely publicized recent firing of Renee Beck, who was the executive director for LifeWise Academy in Firelands Schools. Beck was fired by LifeWise when allegations resurfaced that she had sent "sexual and explicit" messages to a student when she was a teacher at Loudonville Schools. Beck was terminated and lost her teaching license, but was never charged with a crime. Another speaker who had assisted in Elyria Schools was Melinda Penfound, who in the past has helped operate a literacy tutoring program within Elyria Schools. Penfound said that even in her program to help kids read, she was asked by teachers to let students skip sessions because they "couldn't afford to miss 30 minutes," in the classroom. "Anybody who has ever loaded a group of kids knows it is going to be longer than 30 minutes," Penfound said. "It's gonna take a minimum of 15 minutes to get everybody on a bus, 15 minutes to get them off. (If it takes) a half hour for your program, and that's being generous … These kids are going to be missing crucial education time." Former Elyria Schools teacher Don Branzel also spoke, saying that he was uncomfortable with combining public education with religion in the way proposed by LifeWise. "If you are teaching science, for example, and religion is dogma, how do you dispute that, and at one point do you stop talking about something because it's religious or because it's science," Branzel said. "I think it's gonna confuse these little kids." After residents spoke, the meeting continued, and in the final vote of the evening the Board passed its new released time for religious instruction policy on first reading by a vote of 5-0. Elyria is not the first district in Northeast Ohio to pass such an update in the face of public opposition to LifeWise. Berea Schools made an almost identical change to its released time policy earlier this month, and last year Vermilion Schools specifically rejected LifeWise from running a released time program in its schools. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.