“I never thought this would be such a controversy,” board president Julie Reagan said Thursday.

“If the school board felt there was any hidden religious activity behind the motives of our two instructors, we certainly wouldn’t allow that. There is absolutely none of that. The teachers are well intended and trying to offer an aspect of fitness in the classroom that relaxes and readies the children for better learning,” Reagan said.

But the critics say yoga violates church-state boundaries and has no place even a yoga mat in the classroom.

The Massena Board of Education agreed to delay a decision and asked two teachers who have been developing the year-old program to demonstrate yoga’s breathing and relaxation techniques at the board’s next meeting on Oct. 14.

“We are not opposed to the benefits. We can understand the benefits. We are opposed to the philosophy behind it and that has its ties in Hinduism and the way they were presenting it,” said the Rev. Colin Lucid of Calvary Baptist Church in Massena.

Special education teacher Martha Duchscherer and Kerry Perretta, a Spanish teacher, began using yoga in their classrooms last year to relieve stress before exams. They’ve been attending conferences and developing a program across the district.

“It’s a great alternative instructional strategy for children that are over-stressed or who need to relax a little bit,” said Reagan, a professor of classroom management courses at the State University of New York at Potsdam. “I feel bad for the teachers, who wanted to do something different and found it was working, and wanted to share the success.”

One hundred schools in 26 states use yoga in the classroom to relieve stress, Reagan said. Federal funds and grants are available to educators who are going for yoga certification, she said.

“It’s been a little discouraging that this program has taken on a negative tone,” said Duchscherer, who has taught in the Massena district for 11 years. “The intention was never to teach religion … It was to introduce relaxation techniques.”

The Watertown Daily Times first reported that a small group of vocal parents raised concerns about the separation of church and state, saying at a board meeting last week that the district should not expose their children to Hindu rituals.

Lucid said it was “inappropriate” to do yoga in the classroom and that it should be offered as an after-school activity. Although the program is voluntary, he said, “How many kids are going to get up and leave the room?”

Lucid has a child in the high school, but not in one of the classes doing the yoga. He said he spoke out on behalf of congregation members and as a concerned parent.

“It’s been blown way out of proportion. People have made it a religious war, and it’s not a religious war. We are basically concerned parents, saying we don’t want our children participating in something that could cause them more stress and confusion,” Lucid said.

Lucid said that even in its most basic form yoga is tied to Hinduism.

There are more than a hundred different schools of yoga, a word that means “to join or yoke together,” and refers to bringing the mind and body together in a harmonious experience. The most commonly practiced, at least in the United States, is hatha yoga, which encompasses physical movements and postures, plus breathing techniques.

Massena’s controversy isn’t the first over yoga in the classroom. However, according to the American Yoga Association, that is a common misconception. Yoga actually predates Hinduism by many centuries, although it has been adopted by Hinduism, as well as other world religions.

“Yoga is not a religion. It has no creed or fixed set of beliefs,” according to the association’s Web site. “The practice of yoga will not interfere with any religion.”