Christian Schools Director Urges Cooperation With Public System

Christian schools should work with public schools and government agencies instead of considering them the enemy, a regional director of the Assn. of Christian Schools International told that group’s convention in Anaheim on Friday.

Richard Wiebe, director of the California, Nevada and Hawaii region, said Christian school administrators should “work with government officials before you need them. Know these people. These people are not after us.”

Building and maintaining relationships with public officials will pay off, Wiebe said. “When you’re trying to do what’s right, they’ll bend over backwards for you.”

Wiebe rattled off names and telephone numbers of helpful officials from the state Department of Education and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Local public educational officials can be extremely helpful, he said. “We need lots of friends out there. . . . We need to assure them that we’re not fighting them, we’re not saying bad things about them, so we’re not seen as a threat.”

If a Christian school is providing excellence in its programs, administrators should not “flaunt” it. “When we work with these (public) schools in a cooperative manner,” Wiebe said, they are more inclined to provide assistance. He urged his listeners to make an effort to establish cordial working relationships with public school counterparts, “and don’t ask for favors at the first meeting.”

Nearly 7,000 members attended the convention that ended Friday at the Anaheim Convention Center. President Reagan sent written greetings to the 35-year-old organization, saying it provides “crucial training in virtue.” U.S. Education Secretary William Bennett, who addressed the group Friday morning, said the Christian education movement now encompasses 400,000 students.

Wiebe, 55, acknowledged the problem of possible “entanglements” with the public system. “My philosophy about this has changed somewhat,” he admitted.

There are “some fine programs” available to Christian schools from the public sector, he said. These include school lunch supplements and the opportunity to purchase state surplus materials at cut-rate prices--everything from Jeeps to science equipment. Some bus transportation, money for non-religious library books and even vocational courses are available from the public systems, if requests are properly framed.

But he cautioned that administrators should not participate in any local, state or federal programs without first consulting their governing boards, since “that is the quickest way to be released from your job.”

Another reason for the continuing reluctance of Christian educators to involve themselves in these programs, causing “some caution lights to go on,” Wiebe said, is the fear that in the future some governmental authority will require certain percentages of minorities in the student body, faculty, staff and even the governing boards.

Although schools cannot join the Assn. of Christian Schools International unless their representatives sign a non-discrimination pledge for admissions, Wiebe said, they would not want to be required by the government to hire non-Christians who might be more qualified than Christians. “How would you feel about a secretary who was a non-Christian?” he asked.

The association spends thousands of dollars annually on legal matters, Wiebe said, but stays out of issues of a purely local nature. He warned the administrators to be cognizant of the power of the Internal Revenue Service, and to accept rulings regarding payroll withholding for Social Security and unemployment compensation.

Schools built before 1978 should be inspected for asbestos content, and a written disaster preparedness plan should be on file in the school office. Indications of child abuse and molestation--which he said also affects students in Christian schools--should be reported immediately to police and social service authorities.