Tiffin City Schools Praises Teacher of the year, Removes Students from Class to Un-Learn Science

Tiffin City Schools science teacher, Christopher Monsour, is the Ohio 2026 teacher of the year. He has been praised by the state, city, and school officials, for his dedication to students. From the announcement, “Monsour teaches a variety of advanced science courses, including College Credit Plus (CCP) Environment and Society, CCP Oceanus, CCP Anatomy and Physiology, Honors Biology, and AP Biology at Columbian High School in Tiffin City Schools. Over the years, he has taught six different CCP courses while serving as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Findlay, Heidelberg University, and Terra State Community College.”

Recently Tiffin City Schools has approved Lifewise Avademy to remove students from Library to attend religious classes. Lifewise academy is a fundamentalist Christian Bible program that teaches students that dinosaurs and people lived together, that Noah’s ark had dinosaurs on it, and that the earth is only 6,000 years old.

The principal for Krout Elementary in Tiffin, OH, indicated in emails that they “have a good idea” of how to implement Lifewise, but it will make people “angry.” The principal also coordinated with Lifewise to create a schedule, without the support or input of the teacher whose class the students would miss. The Lifewise director shared ideas for how the teacher could shift things to make the schedule work for Lifewise.

This scenario is not unique. Schools often hand over classroom time to Lifewise Academy and do not require students who miss this time to make it up. These are instructional hours the school’s principal is clearly not worried about losing.

The juxtaposition of public schools allocating instructional time to a religious program that will teach the exact opposite of what the district’s teacher of the year recipient teaches should not be taken lightly. If you care about strong public schools, logical use of taxpayer money, and setting teachers up for success, supporting Lifewise Academy should be impossible.

Listening to the current Republican candidate for Governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, discuss how a teacher's pay should be based on performance. At the same time, the state also allows students to be removed from classes, which is clearly insane.

Lifewise Academy is using the public school system to reach new audiences for the churches supporting the program. Parents who are wanting their children to receive religious classes have many after school, evening, and weekend options. Removing time from teachers and students is not the answer. Public schools are not the marketing platform for churches.

Go to https://respectpublicschools.com/ to learn more about Lifewise Academy.