Local resistance, bolstered by the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s intervention, has successfully halted an Arizona rural school board’s decision to build a Mormon seminary on public school property.
This victory underscores the importance of speaking out to safeguard the constitutional principle of separation between state and church.
The building housing the proposed Mormon seminary was to have been owned and operated by the district, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would have been granted use of the building between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays, with the facility only available for school programs or the community outside those hours. The church would only have paid a monthly fee of $500 for utilities and maintenance, and $100 for rent, although church officials promised to contribute to the construction. The church had been offered a renewable 10-year lease.
The arrangement would have allowed Mormon students to receive religious instruction during school hours by walking across a driveway to a seminary on the public school campus. Under the proposed donation and lease agreement, the building was designated for “nonexclusive use as a seminary classroom for students of Cienega High School” in Vail, Ariz.
FFRF was alerted to the proposal by concerned community members and took action to support their efforts. In a letter to the Vail School District Governing Board, FFRF demanded the immediate termination of the agreement, stressing that public school districts cannot provide public resources to benefit churches or facilitate religious release-time programs.
FFRF’s intervention followed action taken by Dianne Post, legal director of Secular AZ, who played a crucial role in thwarting the project. Post sent a cease-and-desist letter to the district, outlining the constitutional concerns at both the state and federal levels. The Arizona Constitution explicitly prohibits public money or property from being used for religious instruction, and the proposed plan would have clearly violated that provision.
“The proposed agreement was a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” says FFRF Staff Attorney Samantha Lawrence. “Public schools should never use their property, infrastructure or resources to promote religious activities, especially in a way that favors one religion over others.”
By leasing public property to the LDS Church for at least 10 years, the Vail School District was essentially providing preferential treatment to the Mormon church and assisting in the operation of a religious program on public school grounds. Such an arrangement crosses constitutional boundaries. More than 30 percent of Arizonans are not religiously affiliated, and only 5 percent are Mormon.
Local activists rallied in opposition, with concerned citizens flooding a school board meeting to voice their outrage. The mounting public pressure and the constitutional concerns raised by FFRF and Secular AZ prompted the district to announce that the agreement would not proceed.
In a statement, the Vail School District noted that the LDS Church had exercised its right to terminate the agreement, effectively ending the proposal.
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor praises the district’s decision.
“We commend the Vail School District for listening to the public and upholding state and federal constitutional dictates,” she says. “Our public schools with their captive audience of students should not be treated as a mission field, with taxpayers of all religions and no religion being forced to subsidize a Mormon seminary on school property.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including 1,100 members and a chapter in Arizona. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
May 5, 2025
