Board votes to adopt resolution on daily prayer

Students from several disciplines of the CTE program pose with trustees after sharing highlights of their disciplines at the WISD Board of Trustees meeting Feb. 9, 2026

Lori Boswell, Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations, front, was recognized by WISD Board members for her years at the district ahead of her retirement at the end of month at the WISD Board of Trustees meeting Feb. 9, 2026.

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Senate Bill 11, passed by the Texas Legislature in September 2025, added Texas Education Code 25.08523 to allow school boards to designate time each school day for both students and employees to pray, meditate, and/or read religious materials. In order to begin to establish a policy, a statutory resolution had to be adopted by March 1. 

The bill requires parental consent for a student to participate and opponents of the bill statewide worry that it could create division among students who don’t participate or have different religions. 

For trustees, the measure created a lengthy debate prior to the vote, with Jeff Ford and Dan Woods eventually being the two dissenting members. 

“This is a bad idea,” Ford said. “It opens the door…to be exploited. And once you open that door, it can be really hard to close it.”

Adding that instructional time would suffer, Ford said having the dedicated time and policy was like “telling me it’s OK to have a gun when I already have the 2nd amendment giving me that right.”

Board Secretary Adam Feriend disagreed, saying there was a “morality issue in this country” and that the prayer time was an opportunity to make a difference.

“I will vote for this,” he said. “We can’t operate in fear, and I am willing to take the risk.”

Woods’ concern was more about not knowing what the practical aspects of a policy were and that he worried about the recruiting of students to other organizations.

Superintendent Dr. Beau Rees admitted that nothing had yet been drafted nor vetted to be able to provide more specific information as to what a policy may look like but assured trustees that every campus would be involved, as well as student representatives, parents and the community would have a say on it as well. 

“We have no idea what it looks like yet, but the board will vote on it when we do have something and if that doesn’t work, we’ll decide what to do at that time,” he said. “It will look different at the elementary level than it does at the high school level so we will need to take all of that into consideration.”  

Before making the motion to approve the resolution, Feriend said he understood the reluctance from his colleagues and the surrounding districts who voted against it but stressed that WISD did everything with “excellence” and that he thought it would be the same in this instance. 

The motion was seconded and passed 5-2. 

Also at the meeting, the board:

• Accepted the voluntary retirement of Lori Boswell, Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations, and named Patricia Melendez as Interim Chief Financial Officer. Boswell’s last day at the district is Feb. 27.
• Heard a campus report from Ikard Elementary and also received a program evaluation from Career and Technical Education (CTE), whose students highlighted different disciplines and provided board members with varying samples of their work from their area of expertise.
• Received preliminary budget numbers for the upcoming 2026-2027 school year.