GRANTSBURG, Wis. — A new policy of teaching about the evolution of species has been changed to clarify that it won’t include classroom lessons in public schools on religious explanations, such as creationism.

As approved by the school board on a 6-1 vote Dec. 6, the policy should ease concerns that the schools would be teaching creationism or the theory of intelligent design as alternatives to evolution, Superintendent Joni Burgin said.

“We wanted to make sure that it was clear that this is a ‘teach-the-controversy-about-evolution’ approach with scientific data,” Burgin said. “It’s not creationism. It’s not intelligent design. It’s science.”

The Grantsburg district drew widespread attention with its approval earlier this school year of a policy that called for teaching scientific theories and also evidence other than evolution.

That move raised concerns among some that the policy opened the gates for religious teachings in school. Several U.S. Supreme Court decisions have held that creationism is based on faith, not science.

The new policy, which takes effect immediately, reads: “Students are expected to analyze, review and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information.”

It adds: “Students shall be able to explain the scientific strengths and weaknesses of evolutionary theory. This policy does not call for the teaching of creationism or intelligent design.”

Amy DeLong, a pastor at Grantsburg’s United Methodist Church, opposed the original policy and said her concerns had been addressed in the revised version.

But she said it made her nervous that the Discovery Institute, a national pro-intelligent-design group, issued a news release praising the new policy. And she said she wondered who would determine what evidence is scientific.

The issue has been very divisive, she added.

“From my perspective, it’s just hard to see people who disagreed with the district’s original policy lose friendships or lose business for speaking out,” she said. “I think it’s tragic in a community of this size.”

Meanwhile, a Dover, Pa., school board member who voted for requiring the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in high school biology classes resigned after failing to get the board to reconsider its vote.

“It’s wrong, it’s all wrong,” said Angie Yingling, who announced her resignation from the Dover Area School Board at a board meeting Dec. 6.

Yingling was among the majority who voted 6-3 on Oct. 18 to mandate intelligent design, a concept that attributes the universe’s complexity to the work of an undefined intelligent force. Dover is believed to be the first school district in the nation to impose such a requirement, which critics call a veiled form of the biblical notion of creationism.

Two of the dissenting board members, Carol Brown and her husband, Jeff Brown, resigned in protest after the vote.

At the Dec. 6 board meeting, Yingling made a motion calling for the board to revisit the decision — saying changes were needed to avoid lawsuits over the policy — but no one seconded the motion.

“We’ve got our point across to the local, state and national levels,” Yingling said. “But taxpayers have told me they can’t afford any lawsuits over this.”

Yingling said that when she voted for the policy, she merely wanted the high school to be able to use an intelligent-design textbook, Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins, as a reference book.

“I feel as though I’ve been misled throughout this whole thing,” she said.

Board President Sheila Harkins, who also voted for the curriculum change, did not return a telephone call seeking comment in time for this story.