No LifeWise Program for Oak Hill

During their Monday meeting, the Oak Hill School Board made a unanimous decision to not provide a letter of support for the formation of a LifeWise Academy chapter for the Oak Hill Middle School. 

LifeWise Academy is a national organization based in Franklin County Ohio that provides optional release time religious education to elementary and middle school students. Public school students are allowed up to two hours per week of religious education as long as it takes place off school grounds, with the consent of a parent or guardian and takes place through a privately funded program. 

School Board Member Andy Horner, said that while the board will still support local organizations, they cannot give their support to LifeWise Academy at this time. 

“I think everybody locally is well-intentioned, well-meaning and they want what’s best for the community,” Horner said. 

The Ark Christian Ministries’s Andrew Hale, the community member who originally presented the plan to the board, was not at the meeting. 

Instead, Hale sent a letter that Superintendent Sheri Hardman read to the board. 

“LifeWise Academy lines up with our vision by using Bible teaching, and we are sad that the school board didn’t agree with us on this program, as we know the impact this could have,” Hale said in the letter. “We do not want to move forward with this program that doesn’t have the acknowledgement of the school board administration as we honor our relationship over running this certain program.”

Hale said that his organization has decided not to take any further steps towards bringing LifeWise into Oak Hill at this time. 

The Ark Christian Ministries planned on providing vehicles to take Oak Hill students to and from the church where LifeWise was going to be held during the school day. 

School Board Member Scott Dubois said that the board is still looking forward to working with Hale in the future despite their refusal to acknowledge the LifeWise plan. 

“When I met with him, I reiterated that multiple times, ‘Andrew, this is not against you, this is not personal or vindictive, anything of that nature,’” said Horner. “So, I think we were in a good place when we were done with our meeting.”