No sponsoring church for religious instruction class this year, but Guinn says Russellville City Schools remains ready and willing to begin the program next year

The Russellville City Schools Board of Education and Superintendent Tim Guinn are ready to start a religious instruction course for students but, at least for the 2025-26 school year, no local church was interested in hosting the program.

In 2019, the Alabama Legislature approved a bill that allowed public school districts to adopt a policy to establish an off-campus religious instruction program and allow students sufficient time each day to leave campus for the classes.

Six years after the bill’s passage, very few Alabama school districts have taken steps to offer religious instruction though, as logistical and legal questions have made finding a sponsoring church difficult. 

In this year’s legislative session, the Alabama Senate approved Senate Bill 278, which would have changed the law by requiring all school systems to establish a religious instruction program, whether they moved forward with offering the program or not.

That bill died in the Alabama House, with some legislators arguing the 2019 law already allows school districts to set up religious instruction programs and there should not be a state mandate for this to be done.

The bill isn’t going away though, as Senate Bill 4 has already been pre-filed for the 2026 legislative session. SB4 would require all public school systems to adopt a policy allowing students to attend off-campus religious instruction classes daily. 

Similar legislation died in the House Education Policy Committee, as a 9-4 vote sealed its fate. So what’s different for the 2026 session? Possibly nothing other than sponsors of the legislation, including Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, steadfastly maintain they will continue to introduce the bill until it passes both the House and Senate.

Guinn said Russellville City Schools was ready to move forward with a religious instruction course for the 2025-26 school year, and he attended  a meeting last spring and invited pastors from local churches to learn about the program and what expectations would be for any sponsoring church.

“We had a good turnout from several churches in the area, and tried to explain what would be expected of any church willing to provide a teacher and host the class,” Guinn said.

“If a church provides a teacher each day, it could be someone for an entire week, an 18-week semester or the entire 36-week school year. They could use multiple teachers as well, as long as a teacher is there to receive our students every day. And they would have to pick up students from Russellville Middle School who enroll in the religious instruction class,” Guinn added.

The course curriculum would be reviewed by RCS officials and the church would also be responsible for students returning to campus on-time for their next class. For example, in a 95-minute block, there could be 65 minutes of instruction with 15 minutes each way allotted for transportation, Guinn explained.

Guinn contacted Russellville City Councilman Darren Woodruff to solicit his help in setting up a meeting with local churches. A meeting was already scheduled with local churches to discuss the feasibility of a local warming center available during extreme winter storms, so discussion of the religious instruction program was added to that meeting agenda. At that meeting, Father Victor Salomon Cardona from Russellville Good Shepherd Catholic Church expressed interest in his church sponsoring the religious instruction class, and there was interest from First Baptist Church and Gateway Church of God as well.

“I’m not asking local churches to do this,” Guinn said. “It’s not something I told (local pastors) we need them to do. It’s an opportunity to work with you in a partnership. If parents are okay with their children receiving religious instruction from a church of their choice, we are willing to release students for those classes.”

Guinn was encouraged by the interest shown not only by Good Shepherd, but a few other local churches. But as the new school year approached, none had moved forward from the preliminary meeting. If that changes during the 25-26 school year, Guinn said his district has the policy in place to start a religious instruction class as soon as next year.

Guinn offered any church who sponsors the class support from RCS instructors, possibly in the form of a workshop to give a brief overview of how a classroom setting works. Religious instruction students would receive a grade for the course just like any other class and attendance records would have to be kept and sent to school officials, Guinn said.

“This needs to be something you and your congregation feel led to do,” Guinn told the pastors. “And if you don’t feel led to do it, don’t do it.

“We are not supplying an instructor. We are not supplying a classroom. We are supplying time for students to take this elective course if or when it’s offered,” he added. “We are still teaching core values on a daily basis. If you want to do this, you’re solidifying those core values with those students you have in your churches. You’re also solidifying your congregations with students coming out of these classes with so much core knowledge. It would be more than 100 hours a year of instruction,” Guinn told the pastors.

After the meeting, Guinn was optimistic RCS would have a religious instruction class debuting in the Fall 2025 semester, but that didn’t happen.

“With the excitement we saw in that room, I thought they’re going to be ready to do this and we can kick it off in time for the Fall 2025 semester, but that didn’t happen,” Guinn said.

He gave out copies of the RCS Board-approved proposal for religious instructional studies to those who attended the meeting. The proposal contained a mission statement and aligned with Russellville City Schools’ Strategic Plan core values. It outlined the program framework and defined who would be eligible to take the classes. Essentially, each church was given a road map they could use to navigate clearly through the process of setting up the religious instruction program. 

Alabama Act 2019-508 allows public schools to offer elective courses ‘in the objective study of the Bible and religious history in grades 6-12,’ so that’s why middle school students would also be offered the course. 

Even with no sponsoring church for the 2025-26 school year, Guinn said Russellville City Schools remains ready and able to assist any church that takes on the religious instruction program. 

“Local church leaders and Christian educators may partner with Russellville City Schools in implementing this impactful initiative. Together, we can offer students a pathway to grow spiritually and ethically in alignment with our shared values,” Guinn said.