FORT WAYNE – Associated Churches is launching a program to address the needs of elementary students in East Allen County Schools and Fort Wayne Community Schools.

The initiative, called “Rising Stars Ministry,” will replace the group’s Bible-based pull-out program, which had been operating for more than 60 years at Fort Wayne Community and 20 years at East Allen.

One component of the ministry will be an after-school program on religious studies and character building. Although aspects of the program will start this fall, the entire program won’t be implemented for at least a year.

Associated Churches of Fort Wayne and Allen County hopes the initiative, endorsed by both school districts, will help churches better address the needs of nearby schools.

In the past, Associated Churches’ Weekday Religious Education program took thousands of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students out of class for 30 minutes each week. The classes, which required parental approval, took place on trailers on or near school property.

After a similar program sparked a lawsuit in Huntington in 2008, Associated Churches Executive Pastor Rev. Roger Reece said his group started to rethink how it managed its program.

Aside from legal concerns, he said the group did not want to take away from the instruction students needed during the day.

“(The schools) needed more time for academic endeavors and we understood that,” Reece said. “They’re under such pressure with testing being so important. … We started thinking, ‘We can probably do this different.’ ”

The new program will have three aspects, all to be phased in during the next few years, Reece said.

Starting this year, the group hopes to assign volunteers known as “community connectors” to all schools in both districts. The connectors will be responsible for working with district administrators to assess the school’s needs.

The volunteers will gather information and pass it along to local churches, which can determine the appropriate help.

Also as part of the ministry, Associated Churches plans to assist EACS and FWCS with elementary student assemblies.

Possibly by next spring, the group hopes to locate and pay for speakers who provide “character-building, value-based assemblies.”

Finally, the ministry plans to start an after-school religious program, possibly as early as next fall.

The program would be two hours once a week and take place either at a nearby church or in the school itself.

Sarah Deans Adams, Associated Churches director of educational ministries, said the program will have a religious focus, though the group is still working out details.

“We want to incorporate more in this program than we did in the trailers,” she said. “We want to work with motor skills and incorporate music. … We would love to be able to offer tutoring, but we’ll want to see the needs of each school.”

Deans Adams said the group hopes to start a pilot after-school program in fall 2011 and then expand as finances allow.

Officials in both school districts said they welcome the program and consider it a partnership between the districts and Associated Churches.

Fort Wayne Community Schools officials have been working with Associated Churches to help them shape the program, district spokeswoman Krista Stockman said.

“We certainly want to keep working with them,” she said. “Their support is critical to the success of our students.”

The Fort Wayne Community Schools board voted to end its Weekday Religious Education this summer, citing lawsuits as part of its concern.

This summer, the family of a Haley Elementary School student sued the school district in federal court, alleging the Weekday Religious Education violated the student’s constitutional rights.

The lawsuit alleged the trailer at Haley Elementary sat on school property and received electricity from a power source on school property. The parents of the students were unsure whether the Weekday Religious Education program reimbursed the district for the electricity, court documents said.

The lawsuit was similar to one filed against Huntington County Community Schools in late 2008. In that case, a religious release-time trailer sat on school property at Horace Mann Elementary School, using electricity from the school. The school district reached a settlement with the plaintiff, agreeing to remove all the trailers from school property and refrain from involvement in religious after-school programs.

Now that the FWCS pull-out program has ended, district officials said the lawsuit should be moot. To comply with the law, the district will have to charge Associated Churches if it plans to use the district’s building space for the after-school program.

dhaynie@jg.net