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Local presenters pitch Lifewise Academy as off-site program for county school district
Summary
A group promoting Lifewise Academy described the program and its local rollout plans to county commissioners, saying it will begin at one school this fall with hopes to expand; presenters attributed legal permissibility to historic Supreme Court guidance and cited success in other districts.
A Lifewise Academy representative told Kosciusko County commissioners that the off-site, faith-influenced program plans to start at one elementary school in the district this fall and hopes to expand to additional schools over the next three years.
The presenter, identified in the meeting as a Lifewise representative, said Lifewise is already in more than 1,000 school districts and described results reported from other communities: "They're seeing the drop in absenteeism amongst these kids who are problematic. They're seeing the in school suspensions and out of school suspensions virtually disappear," the presenter said.
The presenter also discussed legal permissibility for off-site religious instruction and attributed the basis to past U.S. Supreme Court rulings: "Since 1952, the Supreme Court has ruled that if Christian education in a public school is done off the site, paid for by private or churches, not by the school system, and parents give permission for their kids to leave the school during the school day that that you can do this," the presenter said. The presenter cited a 2012 start in Van Wert, Ohio, and Noble County examples, but did not provide citations to specific court cases during the meeting.
Presenters said the local rollout will begin this fall at Jefferson (the presenter named Mike Gormley as the planned first teacher at Jefferson) and identified Nikki Bowers as "director" and Steve and Sandy Stoffler as local Lifewise board members. The presenter said organizers hope to be in all district schools by 2028 and repeated program claims about youth mental-health indicators and participation rates.
Commissioners did not take formal action on the presentation. No formal agreement, school-district approval, or funding commitment was presented during the public meeting. Several factual claims about program reach and outcomes were presented by Lifewise representatives during public remarks; the meeting transcript records those claims but does not provide documentary evidence or district response in the session.
