Bible classes will again be a part of the Mooresville High School curriculum this school year, despite a budget shortfall within the program.
The Mooresville Area Bible Teachers Association (MABTA) is about $3,700 short of its revenue needs for 2011-12, but MABTA officials expect to make up the difference this fall through local donations.
MABTA said in May that it was facing a $20,000 shortfall for the coming school year, which begins Thursday. Contributions throughout the summer were strong, but fell just shy of the goal.
“We’ve had a very good response and we’re very much within reach of getting this goal accomplished,” said Robert Jackson, senior pastor at Peninsula Baptist Church and president of MABTA, a non-profit community organization that funds four Bible classes offered each semester at MHS.
Offered for 17 years at MHS, the classes seek to teach the Bible as a historical text rather than with a specific faith in mind.
Projected expenses for the classes this school year are $58,902; about $50,000 is paid directly to the MGSD for the program's two part-time teachers. As of May 10, MABTA only had about $30,000.
Since the program's inception, it has been solely funded by contributions from local churches, businesses and individuals.
“We’re very grateful for the community’s involvement in seeing this program continue through ongoing work and we’re appreciative of the school board allowing it to be apart of the curriculum,” said Jackson.
Jackson said that this fall’s classes have full enrollments. Kathy Black, the lead teacher for the Bible program, said approximately 125 students are signed up in the four Bible classes this fall.
“There will probably be about that many more in the spring,” Black said.
The classes – Introductions to the Old and New Testaments plus advanced classes in the Old and New Testaments – are taught by Black and Traci Willis. They job-share, each teaching a half-day.
MABTA funds the Bible program by paying the MGSD the necessary monies for the teachers' salaries and benefits.
Donations to MABTA can be sent to: MABTA, P.O. Box 1091, Mooresville, NC 28115. Non-cash gifts are also accepted. To make a non-cash gift to MABTA, contact Jackson at 704-664-2958.
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