SALEM – Salem Superintendent Sean Kirkland has once again denied any collaboration between the school district and LifeWise Academy.

For the third time since concerns were first presented to the board by Salem resident Heather Smith a year ago that LifeWise Academy, a Hillard-based organization specializing in released time religious instruction programming, was advertising its services in the community, Kirkland categorically denied any partnership or collaboration between the district and LifeWise in the board of education’s meeting Monday. Kirkland reiterated the district’s stance that while it would abide by state mandates which allow for a student to be released for off-site bible study programming during school hours in “non-essential” educational time, that it would not alter schedules nor curriculum to facilitate time for this release.

“I’m almost dumbfounded a bit by how miscommunication gets out there. I don’t know how much clearer I can be about the topic of House Bill 8 and LifeWise…There’s some communication issues, I don’t believe it’s on my end, I’ve been very clear that what we will do as a district is follow the mandates of the state of Ohio,” said Kirkland. “When there’s time that is not core academic time, that if a parent wants their students to have some religious education off campus they have a right to do that. To this day I don’t have a single request from a parent. Because of that there are different organizations looking to take advantage of that and offer that service and LifeWise being one of those.”

Kirkland said that he had met with a representative from LifeWise last week, and had been “extremely clear where the board sits on this issue.”

“We’re not here to advertise for LifeWise, we’re not here to recruit kids, we’re not here to make our scheduling easier so they can get to those non-academic times and quite honestly I don’t know where you’re going to find that time in junior high because every student’s schedule is different,” said Kirkland. “The only time they could possibly request to pull them out is during lunch and that’s 30 minutes to get fed, walk across the street or wherever they might take them and get them back to class on time, so I don’t know how feasible it is. My pitch to them is if you want our kids, stop trying to take them during our time, get them after school, we need after school programming.”

Kirkland also said he told LifeWise that he feels the way it presents information about which districts it has received requests to serve, which Kirkland noted can be sent by anyone without needing to be connected to the district, is misleading and has caused much of the confusion about a non-existent partnership.

“There’s a yellow button that says “look for my school,” if you put Salem in there then Salem, not Salem City Schools, but Salem City, Columbiana [County] comes up. I felt, and I let them know, that it is extremely misleading to folks that would stumble across that website and make those who oppose such a partnership believe the school district isn’t telling the truth. Obviously their take on that was that they weren’t misleading anybody or trying to mislead anybody, it was simply an indication that somebody requested their presence in this community so they’re moving forward,” said Kirkland. “My response was that if you dig a little deeper in your website it looks like we’re one step of so and so of however many steps and we’re working with you on getting to that final step. That’s not reality and we’ve talked twice now here, this will be the third time. There shouldn’t be any need for [Board] President [Brittany] Maniscalco to go on TV and clarify this after we’ve presented the board’s stance to the public twice now.”

Smith, who has twice before spoke out against LifeWise at board meetings, thanked the board for their continued resistance to efforts to remove students from school during educational hours. She once again advocated against LifeWise and the state’s policies on released time religious instruction programming, particularly taking issue with the policy allowing students in grades 5 through 8 to be pulled from class “to attend bible lessons during so-called non-essential times like art, music, STEM, [physical education], lunch, or recess.”

“These classes are not non-essential — they are vital to creativity, critical thinking, and the joy of learning. We could protect this time by making all classes core instruction,” said Smith.

She also said that LifeWise’s curriculum, “The Gospel Project” by Lifeway Christian Resources, “comes from the Southern Baptist Convention, which has a long history of discrimination against the LGBTQ Community.”

She urged the community to attend a town hall she will be hosting at the Salem Historical Society at 5 p.m. on Aug. 29, which will feature speakers who have “seen LifeWise from the inside” talking about their experience.

“This is about transparency, inclusion, and protecting every student’s right to a complete education,” Smith said.

The board of education will meet next at 7 p.m. Sept. 15.