Southlake Carroll school board votes to hire chaplains as counselors if qualified
The Southlake Carroll school board voted 5-0 Monday to allow the district to hire chaplains as counselors if they meet the qualifications for the job.
A new state law allows school districts to use safety funds to hire unlicensed chaplains for mental health roles.
“What this resolution means is that this district is not hiring chaplains to be just chaplains or to replace counselors,” board president Cameron Bryan said during the discussion before the vote. “If somebody is a chaplain and they have the same qualifications and meet the standards of CISD counselors, they are more than welcome to apply for an empty seat and compete with everybody else.”
A master’s degree in counseling is one of the requirements.
But Howard Rosenthal, associate director of the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County and a 20-year Southlake resident, urged board members to vote against the resolution over concerns of separation of church and state.
He said the language in the resolution was “unclear.”
“We have school counselors. Why are we going out of our way to accept chaplains?” Rosenthal said.
Andrew Yeager, who made the motion to adopt the resolution said, “I think this resolution is exactly what this community would like.”
He said there are people working for the school district from many faith backgrounds.Yeager said the resolution does not talk about one religion preference over another.
School boards throughout North Texas have debated allowing chaplains.
In Keller, long-time trustee Ruthie Keyes resigned during a discussion on allowing chaplains to serve as volunteers, and in Fort Worth the school board voted against allowing chaplains to provide mental health services.
