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Board rescinds Lifewise public hearing, schedules town halls for community input
Summary
After discussion about state law and implementation logistics, the board voted 5-1 to rescind a planned public hearing on Lifewise release-time instruction and agreed to hold town halls in August and October to gather community input ahead of a bond and policy actions.
The board voted 5-1 to rescind a scheduled public hearing on Lifewise and related release-time religious instruction after members said policy guidance from the school-board association and logistics from the superintendent were needed before public testimony.
"I would move to rescind the public hearing," the mover said during the agenda review, arguing that town halls and forthcoming policy guidance make the hearing premature. Several members responded that the superintendent and principals will need to lead implementation details and that the state session law modifies attendance rules but does not in itself create district schedules for release-time.
Legal counsel summarized that the session law requires the adoption of certain policies and that policy-language guidance from the School Board Association was forthcoming, reinforcing the board's decision to pause the public hearing. The board then agreed to participate in staff-hosted town halls in August and to hold a pre-bond town hall in October to gather input ahead of policy votes and the bond timeline.
The motion to rescind passed 5-1; the board also approved joining a district town-hall schedule by voice vote of 6-0.
