Revere board alters policy, but resistance continues

by Sheldon Ocker

Sept. 17 board of education meeting

The Revere Board of Education moved to adjust its policy allowing students to leave school for religious instruction, but community members opposed to the program continue to protest its implementation.

Perhaps 50 individuals showed up to resist the policy with many taking the microphone during the public comment period. For the first time since April, when the board initially passed the policy, speakers included those (three) who endorse the platform.

The board amended 7.35, as the policy has become known, to limit when students can leave school to take religious instruction. Initially, 7.35 mandated that students could not miss “core curriculum” courses, which is usually understood to mean English, history, math, science and foreign languages.

Under the new proposal, the board defines “core curriculum” as any course in which students receive a grade and those that are ungraded (there are two at Richfield Elementary: library and STEM). Other proposed changes include background checks for individuals who provide religious teaching, and that only one day a week be provided to organizations that give religious instruction.

Most opponents of the policy are focused on LifeWise Academy, the only entity that has expressed interest in removing kids from school to teach its brand of Christianity, or what many critics label Christian Nationalism.

One speaker, Mike Anderson, said he is the LifeWise program director for Revere schools. “I can hear there is some miscommunication. Some misinformation has been disbursed about LifeWise. LifeWise has no political agenda. They are not affiliated with Christian Nationalism.”

Eleanor Evans, executive director of the Palyul Buddhist Temple in Richfield, said LifeWise should be regarded with suspicion.

“[They] purport to have nothing to hide, yet their curriculum is not available for parents and the school board to review,” she said. “Doesn’t this raise red flags? Having seen sample pages of the LifeWise Academy program, it is clear that their mission is to evangelize and proselytize by using peer pressure and incentives such as candy, treats and toys in order to recruit other students.”

One parent, new to Revere, accused the board of ignoring the will of the community.

“Whether it is your intention or not, you have given the impression that you are acting in the interests of a silent minority and not for the overall well-being of our student body,” she said.

She challenged proponents of LifeWise to voice their views in a public setting.

“Why aren’t they up here feeling as uncomfortable and vulnerable as I am right now, in front of you,” the mother of four said. “Why aren’t they fighting for what they believe to be fair, right and just? I fear the answer is the board is already pandering to their needs, and there is no need to ask them to do the difficult work that we are doing.”

During the five months since passage of the policy, several parents have criticized the board for rushing to judgment without getting community input.

A 1977 graduate of Revere said, “How can you issue a policy when you had so many people protesting it? And 1,300 people [a petition was circulated with more than 1,700 signatures of those opposed to the policy]? Someone said that’s not very significant. Some of these board members only got about 2,200 votes.”

He questioned the board’s objectivity.

“So people are questioning whether you have an ulterior motive,” he said, adding that he discovered every board member is a registered Republican.

“I’m concerned that you’re opening up a Pandora’s box and dividing the community,” he said. “You are leaving us with no recourse but to get together and find candidates that are going to move you out of office.”

Mark Reitinger, pastor of Church in the Valley in Peninsula, said his church is “partnering” with LifeWise.

“We’re just giving parents an option,” he said, adding that, “Faith has had a positive effect on kids. … Love one another, be kind to one another, carry each other’s burdens.”

In other action

The board did a first reading of a new eighth-grade curriculum, Choiceless Choices: Resistance and Resilience in the Holocaust.Director of Curriculum Marcia Roach and teachers Nicole Bratt and Annie Lochridge made a detailed presentation of the program. Roach said the curriculum has been in the planning stage for 18 months.She said the focus of the class will be on the people who died and survived, not on the perpetrators.

The board approved the hiring of a second School Resource Officer to assist Scott Dressler.Jerrime Weathers, a Summit County Sheriff’s deputy, is expected to begin work on Sept. 29. Whereas Dressler, a Richfield Village police officer, serves the school district 12 months a year, Weathers was hired to work five days a week during the school year only.The annual cost – $116,000 for salary, benefits, the use of a police car and radios – will be split evenly between the district and the Revere Foundation. ∞