LifeWise Academy seeks policy to allow off-site religious programming for Hilliard

On Mar 17, 2022

Lifewise Academy has an office at Lattimer and Grace streets in Hilliard.

LifeWise Academy, a Bible-based education program, is asking Hilliard City Schools to adopt a policy to allow students to elect to attend its off-site programming for religious instruction.

But some of the district’s board members and administrators do not appear to support the proposal.

The district has no such policy but can, if the school board chooses, adopt one, Board President Nadia Long said March 15.

Lysa Morris, a staff member at LifeWise Academy, asked during the March 14 board meeting at Tolles Career and Technical Center to that a policy for release time for religious instruction be established.

She said districts such as Gahanna Jefferson, New Albany, Westerville, Worthington and Upper Arlington have such policies in place.

Kate Anderson, a mother of four children who has served on the PTO at Hoffman Trails Elementary School, told board members more than 500 people have signed a petition in support of establishing a policy and that Veritas Community Church, 4772 Cemetery Road, and the adjacent J.W. Reason Elementary School, would serve as a pilot locations for the program.

Anderson is also a member of the steering committee at LifeWise.

“Hilliard City Schools needs to adopt a policy” so parents have an option to provide their children with religious instruction without enrolling in a parochial school, Anderson said.

Allowing a release time for religious instruction would provide “character development” and allow children “to improve in all aspects,” said Justin Kershaw, who has four daughters and is also a member of the LifeWise steering committee.

LifeWise Academy provided a prepared statement from its founder, Joel Penton.

“We are hopeful that Hilliard schools will adopt a released time religious instruction policy as have the majority of other Ohio school districts. This would give Hilliard parents an opportunity to incorporate an optional, weekly religious education class for their children through programs like LifeWise,” Penton said in the statement.

The statement described LifeWise Academy as “a Bible-based character education program.”

Sixty percent of Ohio school districts have a released time religious policy in place, according to Morris.

According to releasedrtime.org, a website provided by LifeWise Academy, Ohio school districts may offer the option of released time for religious instruction in compliance with the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case, McCollum v. Board of Education and the 1952 decision, Zorach v. Clauson.

Conditions include that the school districts cannot fund programming, that programs cannot occur on school property and that programs must be voluntary without “encouragement or discouragement on the part of any school official,” according to the website.

Its website says each LifeWise program is funded by private donations and there is no cost to schools or participating families.

LifeWise leaders recruit and hire teachers using the resources and coaching from the LifeWise support center, according to its website.

According to the website, LifeWise Academy, founded in 2018, is a division of Stand For Truth, an event-based nonprofit ministry with a mission to reach public school students.

Penton, a Van Wert native and graduate of Ohio State is the executive director of LifeWise Academy and Stand For Truth.

“LifeWise Academy serves students by offering practical Bible-based education for the betterment of students’ academic performance, character development and mental health. We believe all students can benefit from the message of the Bible and take great care to make all instruction relatable and helpful to those without a church or Christian background,” according to its website.

The organization’s mailing address on its website lists a post office box in Hilliard as its address, but the organization has an office on Grace Street, in Hilliard. The owner of the property, according to the Franklin County Auditor’s Office, is Stand for Truth, Inc.

LifeWise has 34 locations in Ohio and Indiana.

Board members did not address the issue March 14 but was discussed at a policy committee session of board members and district administrators March 11 at the district’s central office on Atlas Street.

Deputy Superintendent Mike McDonough told board members Lisa Murdoch and Brian Perry, members of the board’s policy committee, the district had been approached by an organization requesting it adopt a policy for release time for religious instruction.

McDonough said the district does not have such a policy in place but that the organization he later identified as LifeWise Academy had provided “suggested language” for such a policy.

If implemented, state law dictates that students can’t miss “core instruction,” leaving time allocated for “specials,” such as art and music, as times when students could elect to leave buildings for religious instruction, McDonough said.

The proposal appeared to have initial pushback.

“I worry about the message it will send … that their content isn’t viewed as important,” Holly Meister, principal of Scioto-Darby Elementary School, said about the new policy with the potential to funnel students away from art and music classes.

Meister also raised concerns about the logistics of staff members overseeing the transport of students for instruction while McDonough reiterated that the district does not have uniform times available for when students are available to receive instruction.

“It’s a non-starter for all the reasons mentioned,” Perry said. “I loathe telling (teachers instructing specials) that their job isn’t important. I have nothing against religion but it should be before or after (the academic day).”

Perry said accommodating the transporting of students for such instruction would be a “logistical nightmare.”

While acknowledging that logistics poses a challenge, Murdoch said she “did not see the harm” letting parents decide whether religious instruction or music and art are more important.