The Salt Lake City Board of Education will study Utah law and state school board policy its next meeting before drafting a district policy on school holidays and their observance.
Last December, a Jewish high school student objected to participating in a West High School holiday concert that featured predominantly Christian music.The student, Rachel Bauchman, and her father, Eric Bauchman, contended that the concert selections violated the student's constitutional rights by blurring the separation between church and state guaranteed under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Superintendent Darline Robles recommended to the district school board Tuesday that she appoint a diverse 15-member committee to draft policy recom-men-da-tions she would later bring to the board for consideration. The board rejected the recommendation.
Instead, the board directed the superintendent to invite the district's attorney and Doug Bates, coordinator of school law for the Utah State Office of Education, to an upcoming board meeting to explain existing law and any related court cases.
"I'm reluctant to move ahead with a committee when there is already clear state board policy and state law," said board member D. Kent Michie. "I'm worried this is an explosive issue and it brings out the worst in good people. A committee might be an invitation for that to explode again."
The Bauchmans' complaint stirred considerable controversy at a school board meeting in December. The board took no action then, but the president of the United Jewish Federation of Utah urged members to form a task force to study the issue and draft an appropriate policy.
However it is handled, Dan McConkie Jr., student representative to the school board, urged the board to debate the issue in public.
"This is making a lot of students angry, whether they agree with the Bauchmans or not," McConkie said.
Board member Karen Derrick said the issue ought to be addressed at the school level. "What I'm afraid of, if a policy is instituted at the district level, this dialogue won't go on."
But board member Tab Uno disagreed. "It cannot be a site-based issue. It deals fundamentally as a legal issue."
Roger Thompson, a board member who is an attorney by profession, said the district needs its own policy for legal reasons. A South Dakota case that challenged the same issues turned on the existence of a district policy, he said.
"The lack of a policy would have resulted in a much different result in that case," he said.