This College’s 38-Acre Land Donation to a Christian School Drew Little Attention. Experts Say It Appears to Violate the Law.

After publicly posting only that Weatherford College’s board would meet to discuss property, members emerged from behind closed doors in November 2022 and voted unanimously to give a 38-acre property to Community Christian School. The property was valued at more than $2 million, according to the county’s appraisal district.

“Faith and patience is the path,” Dan Curlee, then the college’s attorney, wrote in an email after the vote to Doug Jefferson, the administrator of the private religious school.

About two years later, the property sits empty as Community Christian School raises the funds needed to make repairs that Jefferson estimates will cost $1.2 million. The donation also raises questions about government oversight at a time when state and local officials are increasingly blurring the lines between church and state, experts said.

Legal experts say the donation appears to have violated multiple state and federal laws, including a provision in the Texas Constitution that prohibits political subdivisions, including public junior colleges, from granting anything of value to aid an individual, association or corporation without return benefit. They also pointed to another provision in state law that prohibits public junior colleges from conveying, selling or exchanging their land for less than fair market value unless the land goes to an abutting property owner.