VIENNA — The Maries R-1 School Board approved the district’s archery program at its Aug. 22 meeting ending the uncertainty around how adopting the program might affect district funding.

At the July board meeting, Tim Simmons and Ethan Murphy outlined the program for the board to consider and vote on at the August meeting. A few days after the July meeting, national news outlets began reporting that the United States Department of Education would cite last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to block Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funds from schools with hunter education and archery programs.

Before the board voted at the August meeting, Superintendent Teresa Messersmith said the program would not affect the district’s funding. She checked with the regional Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education contact who told her that he had heard nothing about the funding issues at the state level. He did not have concerns about the policy affecting schools in the region.

Messersmith said the way she understood the guidelines meant that if the district used federal funds to support the archery program it would lose those funds. The district will not use federal money to support the program.

Sign-up for the archery program will begin later this semester for interested students in fourth through 12th grades. The tournament season will run from December through March.