Three area school districts are planning to offer an elective class on the Bible in the fall.

Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill last year allowing school districts to provide a course on the academic study of the Bible, and the state school board approved broad guidelines for that course in March. The law takes effect in the fall of 2009.

Lake Dallas, Pilot Point and Ponder have already taken the initiative to offer the course for the upcoming school year.

More than 70 students have signed up for Lake Dallas’ first semester class on the Old Testament, world history teacher and coach Randall Caldwell said.

He’s been asked to teach the class on “Bible Literacy” and said he’s looking forward to it.

In the second semester, Caldwell said, the school will offer a class on the New Testament.

In the classes, he said, he’ll teach about the different types of literature in the Bible and Biblical characters, along with historical aspects.

“The Bible elective course will follow applicable law and all federal and state guidelines in maintaining religious neutrality and accommodating diverse religious views, traditions, and perspectives of students. The course will not endorse, favor, or promote, or disfavor or show hostility toward, any particular religion or nonreligious faith or religious perspective,” said Dawn Angove, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Lake Dallas school district, in an e-mail.

Tammy Morgan, director of instructional services in Pilot Point, recently shared information with board members concerning the Bible class the district is planning to offer.

School board president Glen Ray commended Morgan’s presentation and the work she did to determine which curriculum on the Bible for the district to follow.

He said she picked a very broad-based curriculum that would not be anything students shouldn’t be introduced to in a school setting.

Morgan said the district wouldn’t know until the summer if enough people will have signed up for them to move ahead on the class, but she wanted to get a jump start in determining what curriculum to follow.

Morgan said the course, “Bible in History and Literature,” is fact-based and meets all the state’s requirements.

“We’re not trying to indoctrinate kids. It’s really a piece of literature,” Morgan said.

“Parents in the community seem excited about it,” she said.

The Ponder school district is trying to be proactive in giving students the opportunity to see the Bible from a historical and artist perspective, high school Principal Kent Josselet said.

He said they wouldn’t know how many students are interested in the course, which could be a combination study of content, history and literature of Old and New Testament, until near the end of the school year.

Teaching the Bible from a literary and historical perspective is constitutional, as long as it is taught from an objective stance, said Richard Fossey, a professor of teacher education and administration, who teaches educational law at the University of North Texas.

The Supreme Court backs school districts that want to offer the course, he said, and hard-line secularists would have a difficult time trying to keep the class from being offered.

It’s important that teachers have received educational training in how to present the material in an objective way, he said.

The Texas law requires that a teacher of the class have a High School Composite Certification in language arts, social studies, or history with, where practical, a minor in religion or biblical studies.

Fossey said a teacher with one of the subject composite certifications could be sufficient as long as the teacher is sensitive about not teaching faith and is knowledgeable on the facts of the subject.

Sanger Superintendent Jack Biggerstaff said his district hasn’t looked into offering a Bible course. Argyle’s acting superintendent Telena Wright said the Argyle schools would gauge interest on the course in the spring of 2009.

Denton, Aubrey and Krum school districts currently have no plans to offer the course.

Aubrey Superintendent James Monaco said the district could conduct a survey gauging interest in the class if someone requests it.

Krum Superintendent Troy Hamm said that because the district has had no request for the class, they have no plans to offer it. The new superintendent who replaces him when he retires this summer may decide otherwise, he added.

The state commissioner of education has sought an attorney general’s opinion on whether the 2007 bill requires all school districts to offer the Bible class or if it is optional.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed a response to that request in April asking that the attorney general affirm that the meaning of statute is that school districts “may” but are not required to offer the class.

“We think it’s clear that it’s not a required curriculum,” said Fleming Terrell, a law clerk with ACLU of Texas.

According to the law, if fewer than 15 students at a district campus enroll in the course, “the district is not required to offer the course at that campus for that semester.”

But the law amended the Education Code to read: “Each school district that offers kindergarten through grade 12 shall offer, as a required curriculum … religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testa­ment) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature.”

AMY DODD THOMPSON can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is athompson@dentonrc.com .