The Freedom From Religion Foundation is insisting that the Vail School District Governing Board terminate an agreement that would allow a 1,300-square-foot seminary school to be built on district property.
Several concerned community members, including at least one parent, have informed FFRF that the Vail School District Governing Board recently voted to enter an agreement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build a new structure on district property for the church’s benefit. Per the Donation and Lease Agreement, the approximately 1,300-square-foot structure will be for the “nonexclusive use as a seminary classroom for students of Cienega High School.” The board’s March 25 meeting agenda further explained that the church will utilize the space “for their Release-Time Seminary Classes at Cienega High School.”
The Mormon church plans to donate funds to the district for the seminary school. In exchange, the district will construct the seminary school on public property and lease the school to the church long-term for the nominal fee of $100 rent and $500 for utilities per month, totaling only $7,200 per year for the 1,300-square-foot building. According to the agreement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “shall be an intended third-party beneficiary of the construction contract” for the seminary school. The agreement gives the church the right to use the building as a seminary school from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays for the entire duration of the initial ten-year lease, which has an optional nine-year and six month extension.
FFRF is insisting the board immediately terminate the agreement with the church, as public school districts cannot use public resources to benefit favored churches or assist churches in carrying out religious release-time classes.
“The First Amendment prohibits public schools from favoring religion over nonreligion, or one particular religion over others,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence writes to Board President Allison Pratt.
By entering the agreement, the board is undeniably providing favored treatment to the Mormon church, going out of its way to concoct a deal to assist it in building a release-time seminary school on public property next to a public high school. By leasing the building to the church for at least ten years, if not two decades, the board would cross a constitutional line. Further, expending public resources to support release-time instruction is itself a constitutional violation. As the agreement details, the board and district are explicitly expending public resources to support the church’s release-time instruction in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The Arizona State Constitution also states, “No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise, or instruction, or to the support of any religious establishment.” (Art. 2, Section 12)
Finally, the Vail School District Governing Board’s actions send a clear message that it favors students who are members of the Mormon church. This unconstitutional agreement marginalizes students, families and community members — including several of FFRF’s complainants — who are part of the 37 percent of the American population that is non-Christian, including the almost 30 percent who are nonreligious. At least a third of Generation Z (those born after 1996) have no religion, with a recent survey revealing nearly half of Gen Z qualifies as religiously unaffiliated “Nones.” Pew’s new Religious Landscape Survey shows that 31 percent of adults in Arizona identify as religiously unaffiliated.
FFRF requests that the board immediately terminate its agreement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to abide by the Constitution.
“This is an unconstitutional give-away to the Mormon Church at public expense that should be opposed by any reasonable Vail taxpayer,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “We have always opposed release-time programs, but providing a district-funded indoctrination building is even more egregious.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 1,000 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.
April 3, 2025
