More than 100 people — at least 50 from St. James Roman Catholic Church — attended the Cazenovia Board of Education meeting on Monday; most of them were there to stand up, literally, in support of the district’s religious release time program for district students.
The meeting was held in the middle school auxiliary gym rather than the board meeting room in the district office due to the large crowd.
The issue of the fairness to students of the district’s religious release time program has been fermenting for a while, first with discussions between concerned parents and district Superintendent Matt Reilly in the fall.
Last month, about two dozen district parents attended the school board’s regular meeting specifically to convince the board to change the district’s policy that allows for students to leave school to attend hour-long religious education classes at local churches. The parents complained that religious release time is not transparent in how it is administered, unfair to the students who do not attend it because they are not taught anything of value during that hour and should not take away learning time in a public education system. A few parents also spoke in favor of the program.
Reilly said at that time that state education regulations require the district to allow students to attend religious education during the school day, for not more than one hour per week, if parents request it. Such religious education must occur outside of school buildings and grounds and must not create any cost to the district or taxpayers. Students who do not participate in the religious release program must “participate in appropriate educational activities” while their classmates are out of class.
After that November meeting, many parents continued contacting the school board and the district superintendent with their questions and concerns about the program; the administration posted an extensive explanation of school board, school district and New York state education policies on the subject of religious education; administrators created a community and district stakeholder committee to examine the issue and members of St. James Roman Catholic Church had a mass meeting in the church to coordinate their response to fight to keep the program in place.
“Our district is recognized for its excellence and we are pleased to contribute to this,” said Art Bigsby, a district parent and St. James parishioner, who spoke and submitted a letter to the board on behalf of more than 200 of his fellow church members. When he stood up to speak to the board, at least 50 other St. James parishioners also stood up with him in support.
Bigsby said 351 students from 197 families in Cazenovia participate in the religious release time program in the district, and “we look forward to continuing our program which has operated at St. James for more than 60 years.”
Other district parents also stood up to speak in favor of the board continuing the program, as did students and recent Cazenovia High School graduates.
“Religious release time is very educational and productive,” said CHS senior Tim Hunt. He said students who stay in the classroom use that activity time to get extra help on their work, to do enrichment activities or just to catch up on their studies.
Recent CHS graduate Carson Clabeaux agreed and said, “Four of us agree that we would not have made it through algebra/trigonometry without the activity period [created by religious release time].”
Parent Alexander “Xan” Karn, one of the main proponents of the unfairness of religious release time for non-attending students, said he and the other concerned parents are not against religious release time itself, just the “mechanics of the program” so that non-participating students receive quality educational experiences during that one-hour time period.
Karn also backed off a previous comment he made in which he said concerned parents “do not want a holy war on this; it’s just an educational issue for us,” after that term “holy war” caused a backlash from program supporters, who called it an inappropriate remark.
Karn said it was “an unfortunate comment I made,” and said the concerned parents are not against religious freedom.
Reilly said he has spent a lot of time on the subject of religious release time during the past month, including the formation of the stakeholder committee, and before he makes any recommendations to the board on changing or not changing the program, he wants to give the committee time to discuss the issue.
“There are valuable things happening during that time, and I don’t want to sacrifice that,” said Reilly, who has staunchly defended district teachers in their job performance during religious release periods. “I want it to be valuable for all students. It’s about an exercise in getting better — and the attendance here tonight is emblematic of your level of care.”
During their discussion time, board members unanimously agreed that they are in favor of supporting the administration and the parents in figuring out how to make release time periods beneficial to all students.
“The focus is on how to use that time, not if that time should exist,” said Member Jan Woodworth.
More information on religious release time in the Cazenovia district, including the school board’s policy, the state education commissioner’s policy, the 1994 court decision of St. James Church v. Board of Education of the Cazenovia Central School District and a “Release Time Q and A” from the district, can be found on the district website at cazenoviacsd.com, under the “Latest News” tab on the homepage.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].