EVERETT — Community members gathered at a school board meeting in Everett on Tuesday to voice their concerns over a controversial midday Bible education program after legal teams representing the program threatened to sue Everett Public Schools.

The program, LifeWise Academy, currently operates near Emerson Elementary in Everett. It opened in January, the first to begin in the Puget Sound area.

Once a week, volunteers from the nonprofit take children out of public school in the middle of the school day — during lunch and recess periods — for optional off-site Bible classes. Everett Public Schools does not support, endorse or oppose the program, but allows it to operate, citing a 1952 Supreme Court ruling and state guidance that allows off-campus religious instruction.

Some parents

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