By SHAYLA ESCUDERO/Lincoln Chronicle
A large Newport Christian church with a growing private school is pressuring the Lincoln County School District to reverse a new policy that could restrict its students’ participation on public school athletic teams in the fall.
School administrators now say the update in their athletics handbook caused a misunderstanding and are working to resolve the complaint.
The principal and some parents of the 120-student K-12 South Beach Christian School in Newport are upset that a change in district policy for next school year means new private school students cannot participate in a middle or high school sport unless there are not enough public or homeschooled students to fill out the team.
The issue comes at an awkward time for the school district. It is seeking voter approval of a $73 million building bond in the May 20 special election and it is experiencing a slow decline in enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic due to a variety of factors, including private school growth. State reimbursement to public schools is based on enrollment.
The seats at Tuesday night’s Lincoln County school board meeting were full, prompting South Beach Christian School supporters to crowd the bleachers inside Taft Elementary School’s gym. Many attendees wore black T-shirts with the slogan “Let all children play.”
During the meeting, school board members read a statement about the district’s non-discrimination policy.
Board member Mitch Parsons also asked people with questions or concerns about district policies to contact administrators or board members before going on social media. South Beach school supporters, parents and children had been posting their objections on Facebook for weeks.
“I wanted to thank the public for coming out and having their voice heard … if you are going to put it on Facebook please come to meetings and let us know,” Parsons said.
A recent change in the LCSD athletics and activities handbook limited new private school students from joining public school athletics, South Beach Christian School principal Katey Townsend said during the meeting’s public comment period.
For the past three years students at the Christian school were able to play sports at neighboring schools in Newport and Toledo. But starting next year under the new policy, Townsend said, no new private school students will be able to join public school teams unless the teams did not have the minimum required players.
“We aren’t asking for special treatment, we are asking for the same opportunities students have had the last three years and that private school students across Oregon continue to have,” Townsend said.
This year, eight athletes from the school played on public school teams. Next year, five incoming freshmen had hoped to join them, Townsend said. The new decision affects both middle and high school students.
Townsend filed a complaint May 4 with the district and asked administrators to review emails between athletic directors and the private school and to speak to affected children and families.
“It was shocking,” she said, “When my advocacy did not result in a reversal in the decision, I filed a formal complaint and encouraged our families and students to share how this impacts them directly.”
The church is in the process of constructing a new, 20,000 square foot building in the Wilder area of South Beach. Once that building is finished, plans call for construction of a school next to it. The school currently conducts classes in the former Newport Christian School. Tuition at South Beach Christian School is $6,200 a year.
Several parents took to Facebook and shared statements on the private school’s website, calling for reversal of the district’s decision.
“This policy is especially troubling given that it is not required under state rules,” wrote Joyclynn Potter, a parent to an upcoming eighth-grader. “These guidelines state that private school students may participate in public school athletics when both the public and private schools agree. Lincoln County School District is not mandated to exclude; it is choosing to exclude.”
Before Tuesday’s meeting, the private school shared an update on its social media channels.
“LCSD has heard our voice. We now believe things are moving in a positive direction for our student athletes’ continued inclusion in public school sports,” the statement read.
The school district was prepared to hear the Christian school’s grievances Tuesday night but administrators said they were still in the process of reviewing Townsend’s complaint and were unwilling to share many other details.
“The district recently received a complaint from a private school regarding our district athletic participation policy and is working directly with a private school principal and other private schools to develop a comprehensive solution through a collaborative process,” the district said in a statement to Lincoln Chronicle. “Our goal is to make sure students across Lincoln County have real opportunities to take part in sports and extracurricular activities that help them grow and connect as part of their local communities.”
Home school, online public school students and students pursuing a GED are allowed to participate in district athletics, as required by state law. According to the district, private school athletes can play on public school teams when there is availability on a team in their resident school.
Administrators changed the language in the handbook to reflect the district’s discretion to allow private school students to participate in public school athletics, said superintendent assistant Susan Van Liew after a budget meeting Thursday night. Some saw the new language as a change in policy, she said, but the district was never required by law to let private school students play sports.
Next year, the handbook will be “status quo” and if there are any future changes the district will have conversations with affected schools, Van Liew said.
“I’m enthusiastic about the continued conversation between the district and South Beach church,” board member Jason Malloy said at the meeting. “I look forward to seeing a resolution that benefits everybody.”
- Shayla Escudero covers Lincoln County government, education, Newport, housing and social services for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at Shayla@LincolnChronicle.org
Any healthy activities which promote interaction between private school students and public school students and home-schooled students should be encouraged to enhance well-rounded discourse among young people of different backgrounds and experiences. Better understanding is a key to appreciating the diversity of humankind. Like it or not, we are a “bag of mixed nuts,” as it were, and the more we know about each other’s lifestyles and cultures, the better-equipped we are to avoid serious confrontation.
Sports (and music) offer opportunities to develop partnership and teamwork skills.
Not one cent of public tax dollars should be used in any way to support private religious schools, including anything operated by South Beach Church, which teaches its members that evolution is wrong.
I don’t know if letting private school athletes participate with teams from public schools costs any tax money, but if it does, then this should not happen. Private religious schools undermine public education by draining money away from the public school system.
All pay school taxes in addition to private tuition. When vouchers are allowed for Christian schools then you can block.
This is not true. The school district, as stated in the article, gets it money from registration and number of students. If those private Christian school students want to leave and hurt the funding of the school district, they don’t get the benefit of playing sports for that district. Start your own team. Simple as that.
All Lincoln county residents pay the school tax. Whether you own or rent. You should know that.
No, taxes are not a one-size-fits-all situation, particularly with regard to public vs private schools. I don’t understand why some folks are so adverse to admitting mistakes or applying standards fairly across the board.
The private school is demanding public schools cover them in sports. That’s also a legal nightmare. Plus, any added costs come out of the other [insufficient] public school funds. It does not come from private schools.
If you can fund a 20,000 sq ft brand new campus for 120 students but you refuse to pay into public education and think of this as oppression, you’re shadowboxing the wrong villains.
They should have to hire their own athletic coordinators and facilitators, pay for their own gear, etc. Most private schools already do this. Using their own formula, the responsibility is theirs. Playing on a team or even combining a team while carrying your own students in terms of cost and liability is not the issue. I played against private schools in a lot of sports. Since the numbers are lacking here, they could reach out to homeschooled kids who are currently under the district’s coverage or they could strike a fair deal without resulting to false claims of anti-christian prejudice
It does cost the school money via uniforms, gear, facility use, coaches, staff, paperwork/records for those students, bussing, and general wear and tear on everything listed. Not to mention, they can be taking a spot from a public school student who is actually attending the district and paying into the funds the district gets.
This is a very interesting and touchy subject but it really needs to be looked at like this. We have a school system that all kids are allowed to attend equally. Now you have a group that says hey the school system really bites and they don’t like how the school is operated.
So this so called private school group that with force will try to get everything their way. Ok so this is it. The people have fled from the school system to make their own rules and have a certain type of teaching. There it is. You guys left the school system because you could not tolerate how things were done. With that the privilege to play for the school you have abandoned should not be available. You should have to create your own team and participate how you created it. Simple you be part of the school system and your child gets to play sports for that school. You skip out and talk trash on the school system then sorry create your own team.
Completely agree with the school district here. Doesn’t matter if they were allowing it previously, public dollars are going to support private school students in this scenario. If you want the privilege of playing sports, go to the public school, or grow a program at your private school and get OSAA sanctioned like a Mannahouse academy, or Marist. You don’t get to be elitist, then complain when public money doesn’t want to support your elitist habits. It’s not complicated.
Does it suck for the kids that want to play because their parents decided to enroll them in a private Christian school that’s too small to support sports? Yeah. Is there a solution to it? Yeah, enroll in the public education system. Go play club sports. There are options for those students that isn’t public tax payer dollars supporting them.
Another option would be charging the students and parents an extremely high fee for the right to play, paired with the public resources those private Christian school kids will use. But then you’ll see these same parents complain they’re being charged more than other students.
Hope the school district stands strong and doesn’t flinch on this issue. Even despite them wanting a rather large bond. Those private school parents were likely already voting no on that bond anyways. Public money should NEVER support private religious schools and their students.
I’ll say it again here. To those who insist that public money shouldn’t be spent on students who go to private school miss an uncomfortable fact: Lincoln county residents who send their children to private schools also must pay the public school tax in their property taxes or through the rent they pay. All Lincoln County residents pay the School taxes through their property taxes or those taxes are factored in through the rent they pay the landlord. Most of the taxes supporting LCSD are paid by people who have (and in my case and others never had) a child enrolled in an LCSD school. I gladly pay these taxes because I consider it to be a civic duty to educate our children.
Now, let’s talk about school choice. Many people would like to opt out of the public school systems but can’t afford to pay for both public and private schooling. Yes, vouchers are the way to go and state money that goes to public schools based on head counts should also be available to private schools based on the same criteria. People should have a choice where their children are educated.
Private religious schools aren’t really schools. They’re churches – Sunday schools dressed up like higher education. Private religious schools are not regulated by the state, and the state does not accredit the curriculum of private schools. For the purpose of taxation, private religious schools are treated like churches and are exempt property taxes. But rather than enjoy these incredible liberties provided to all churches by our Constitution, evangelical Christians continue to pound a wedge into that very constitution. Should public funds subsidize church operations? No, they should not. Church and State should remain separate.
I am surprised and dismayed that the comments on this story seem to be all about the money.
This is what should be of more concern: [LCSD] “is experiencing a slow decline in enrollment … due to a variety of factors, including private school growth. State reimbursement to public schools is based on enrollment.”
Why are parents choosing to pay for private school instead of opting for “free” public school? I can only tell you why I, as a struggling single mother, sent my child to a private school despite the expense: Too much eager emphasis on sex and gender identification.
I did not want my 5-year-old to be taught details of sexual acts, which was where the public school system seemed to be heading when it started requiring or recommending HPV vaccine for 9-year-old girls, implying that the majority of schoolchildren are sexually active at that age. Of course, some would argue that children need more detailed sex education at an early age, even though their bodies and hormones are still pre-pubescent.
When parents feel that the public school system is spending too much time and attention attending to the 5% (5 in 100, roughly 1 in a classroom of 33 students) who identify as other than their sex at birth, what recourse do parents have? How can I support a education system that now, to placate the sensitivities of the 5%, encourages horrendous misleading grammar, such as using a plural pronoun for a single person? For example, being required to report, “They drove their car into a ditch,” when there was only one person in the car.
I voted in favor of the LCSD bond appeal because not everyone can afford alternatives, but I do not regret that my daughter attended a private school — the school was Christian because at the time, it was the only alternative to public school that was available to me. When she segued into public school, she was more than prepared and with the help of one of her teachers, was able to skip a grade. My child graduated from university and is a well-adjusted, compassionate, happily married adult with a child of her own, earning more money in a week than I did in a month. No regrets for my education choices for her. Instead of worrying about the money, worry about the quality of education in America.
I will focus here on one point that is blatant misinformation. The HPV vaccine being given at 9 definitely does not imply kids are sexually active at that age. The point is to give the vaccine well before kids might become sexually active in adolescence or later. And research shows the immune response is strongest if the vaccine is administered between ages 9 and 12. Also, there are two shots required so you want time for both to be administered 6 to 12 months apart. Most kids do not get the vaccine at age 9 but when they are two or three years older. Discouraging use of the HPV vaccine just means more of these kids will develop cancer as adults.