Agra Public Schools Adopts Bible Focused Curriculum

Despite objections, refusals, or dismissal from dozens of districts around Oklahoma, there is at least one public school district in Oklahoma that has proudly responded to a June directive to teach from the Bible in classrooms.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters has defended the directive. The same day, the Oklahoma Attorney General's office also clarified that state law already allowed the Bible to be used as an instructional tool.

Now, newly released open records from the Oklahoma State Department of Education reveal a message from Agra Public Schools superintendent, Jeff Kelly.

Kelly responded to an email blast from Walters, thanking the state education official for his directive because “we desperately need the Bible back in our schools, and this directive will give us the necessary protection/cover."

On Wednesday, Kelly released several pages of Bible-focused curriculum, lesson plans, and handouts. The district also purchased 15 copies of the New King James Version Bible, but Kelly said the district has received no guidance on whether those costs are reimbursable at the state level.

Kelly declined an interview. But in an email, he said the district has made families in the district aware of the rollout and provided two opportunities to parents for meetings regarding the curriculum.

According to Kelly, only staff or board members showed up to the meetings.

“The directive strictly states that the Bible can only be used for its historical, literary, and secular value and not for preaching, indoctrination, nor proselytizing," Kelly wrote in his message to district families. “This is nothing new."

While the district only spent $44.85 to buy the Bibles, other districts have cited the cost of purchasing Bibles for every classroom as the reason alone for why the directive cannot be followed.

“I am unable to purchase Bibles for every classroom,” said Oklahoma City Public Schools superintendent Jamie Polk in an early August interview. Polk said the district has more than 1,700 classrooms.

In Agra, people in town who answered the door to News 9 were all supportive of the new curriculum.

“There's one Lord, one God, and one Savior, the man Jesus Christ," said Tim Durbin, who has a 19-year-old daughter who is a recent graduate of Agra High School. “And that's how we're going to get to heaven. That's how the kids are going to have to learn it. I mean, they need to learn it. If they don't learn it in the home, then it's going to come back to the school."

Betty Knox, an 83-year-old who recently moved to Agra to be closer to family, said she evangelizes as much as possible and supports the decision to implement the new curriculum.

“I love my Jesus," she said. “I meet kids up there on the sidewalks who are out here in the neighborhoods and talk to them about Jesus."