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Parents raise objections after district clarifies Lifewise pullout program is not a district initiative
Summary
Superintendent Barr told the Peninsula School District board that Lifewise Academy is not a district program and is held off school property with parental permission. Multiple parents at the meeting urged the board to pause or restrict Lifewise’s pullout lunch-and-recess instruction, citing disruption, recruitment tactics and equity concerns.
Superintendent Barr told the Peninsula School District Board of Directors on Aug. 19 that Lifewise Academy is not a district-initiated program, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the district, and is held off school property with parental permission and without public funds. “Lifewise is not a Peninsula School District or a PSD school board initiated program, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by our district in any way,” Barr said.
That clarification followed roughly an hour of public comment during which several Discovery Elementary parents and other community members described plans by Lifewise to offer lunch-and-recess pullout religious instruction for elementary students and urged the board to prohibit or strictly limit it. Speakers raised concerns that the program would disrupt classrooms, create divisions among students, use recruitment tactics aimed at young children and add burdens to already thin front-office staffing.
The public comments included examples collected from other districts and online materials that parents said show Lifewise volunteers handing out flyers and incentives to recruit students. Parents asked the district either to bar group religious pullouts during school hours or to require the program to run outside school hours and to establish strict safeguards if any pullouts continue.
Superintendent Barr repeated the district’s position later in the meeting, saying there is no district agreement or endorsement and that the program is understood to be private and off campus. Barr encouraged families to pursue off-campus religious instruction if they wish, noting the district’s policy (Board Policy 2340) that allows parents to excuse a student for religious instruction “provided the activity is not conducted on school property” and that credit is not given for such instruction.
Board members did not vote on any new restrictions or policies related to release-time religious instruction at the Aug. 19 meeting. Several board members and the superintendent said they would gather more information and that the district’s existing rights-and-responsibilities materials and school procedures are being refreshed before the start of the school year.
Parents at the meeting requested specific measures if Lifewise or similar groups operate on school days: require parent/guardian sign-out and sign-in for each instance; prohibit promotional materials, giveaways or peer recruitment on school property; require district vetting of any adults who will remove students; and restrict pullouts to noninstructional time or to organized before/after-school programs.
The board did not adopt any of those measures at the Aug. 19 meeting. Superintendent Barr said she had not met with Lifewise and that the district would respond publicly as additional details are confirmed. Several parents asked that the board “pause” or delay any district-level accommodation until the district publishes a clear procedure governing release-time activities and any on- or off-campus coordination.
For now, district policy remains: parents may excuse children for off-site religious instruction provided it is not on school property and is done with parental permission. The board planned to continue monitoring the issue and to provide updated procedural information in the district rights-and-responsibilities materials before school opens.
