Another Kentucky county school board votes against off-campus Bible classes

The Oldham County School Board voted unanimously Wednesday against providing off-campus Bible classes to students during the school day.

Districts across the state were watching the vote in Oldham County as LifeWise, an Ohio-based Christian nonprofit that provides the classes, is planning proposals in at least 45 of Kentucky’s 171 school districts, according to media reports.

LifeWise was founded by Joel Penton, a former Ohio State University football player. It is based in Hilliard, a Columbus suburb. The organization’s principle belief is “keeping the gospel at the center of the program is our only hope for genuinely changing the hearts of the next generation.”

Before the 5-0 vote, school board members in the suburban Louisville county said they thought it would be disruptive for students to leave during the school day.

For academic reasons, said board member Suzanne Hundley, “We need to keep our kids in the school during the school day.”

“I don't care if it was the National Wildlife Federation that wanted to come educate kids about ducks, I don't think it belongs during the school day,” Hundley said. She said clubs meet before and after school and, “I don’t see the difference in this.”

Some board members said the issue had somewhat divided the community. The majority of people who responded to a board member’s poll said they were against allowing students to leave class for the LifeWise program.

“The discussions that we’ve had have been very difficult,” board chair Carly Clem said. “This is what is keeping me up at night. It is an important decision. It’s a precedent.”

The 2025 General Assembly passed Senate Bill 19, sponsored by Sen. Rick Girdler, R-Somerset, which created a process for school districts to allow off-campus moral instruction, including Bible classes.

The classes “would be optional for families and students to participate in, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment allows these optional off-campus Bible classes,” the conservative Christian public policy organization Family Foundation said in a September news release.

Under the law, students who don’t participate in a moral instruction class must remain in school and take noncredit enrichment courses or participate in educational activities not required in the regular curriculum. Those courses or activities must be supervised by certified school staff and may include, but are not limited to, study hall, computer instruction, music, art, library, physical education and tutoring.

Oldham County school board member Dominic Cedillo said he was a conservative Christian and thought the amended state law asking school boards to vote on approving off-campus Bible classes during the school day put his board into a “lose-lose” situation.

“Big government has inserted itself into the day-to-day operations of schools,” Cedillo said. “The 2025 General Assembly appointed itself as the gatekeepers of moral instruction, adding unnecessary layers of government approval.”

The proposal called for a pilot program for third- through fifth-grade students at Locust Grove Elementary. Students would leave school one hour each week to attend a Lifewise program at a church, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.

More than 1,000 schools across 34 states allow students to participate in LifeWise programs during school hours. LifeWise organizes a local team to provide the programming, transportation and staff without receiving taxpayer funding.

Clem, who described herself as a Christian, said she thought the program LifeWise offered “sounds wonderful,” but said it poses the potential for a “massive logistical nightmare” and more work for teachers.

“It is more about protecting our staff. We, as a board, have spent a massive amount of time and money on teacher raises, staff raises, and to ask them to take on more, in my opinion, goes against all of what we’ve been working for for the last three years,” Clem said.

There was no public comment at the meeting, and LifeWise did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment.

The Family Foundation has partnered with LifeWise Academy to share information about the new Kentucky law and to help parents to bring the optional off-campus Bible classes to local school districts.

The office of Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, recently said a local board of education is not required to approve a request submitted by a qualified provider to provide moral instruction to students if a board’s decision to deny the request is not arbitrary or motivated by “animosity to religion.”

Coleman’s office also said a local board of education is required to accommodate a parent’s request to release a student to attend a district-approved moral instruction program, if there are any.

In late August, the Warren County School Board voted against LifeWise’s program proposal 3-2. Family Foundation officials have urged that board to reconsider its vote.

The Kentucky Lantern reported that Lifewise has ambitious plans in the commonwealth. Cassie Allchorne, the program director of Oldham County’s LifeWise Academy, told the Lantern LifeWise has about 45 planning teams forming or fully formed across Kentucky’s 171 public school districts.

“Marshall County is the only active LifeWise program in Kentucky, with six schools in that district having the program this fall. LifeWise has been in the district since 2023. State law previously allowed school-based decision-making councils to decide if off-campus moral instruction programs could be offered to students,” the Lantern reported.

WPSD, a news station in Paducah, reported LifeWise will propose the classes to the McCracken County School Board.

This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 6:24 PM.