WSD to debate, vote on religious issues tonight

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This article was published 04/05/2015 (4081 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the showdown on religion in Winnipeg School Division tonight.

Trustees will debate and the vote on trustee Lisa Naylor’s bid to ask the province to let school boards decide who can conduct religious exercises in public schools.

The Public Schools Act allows parents to file petitions to allow their kids to take part in religious exercises before classes start, or in Bible studies during lunchtime. The process sets minimum numbers and stipulates there be no recruiting of kids or proselytizing on school grounds.

The Child Evangelism Fellowship of Manitoba is the only religious body that organizes and conducts exercises in WSD, and Naylor and board chair Mark Wasyliw have raised concerns that the evangelists’ beliefs violate the division’s values on sexual orientation, evolution, and other issues.

WSD has always drawn-out the approval process as long as possible, passing one reading of the required three readings of a bylaw on each application each year. This year, the board challenged the petition form used by parents at Greenway School, to delay the process even further.

Naylor wants the province to let school boards decide if the religious organization that would work within its schools is acceptable.

Meanwhile, there could be significant progress this evening on the major shuffle looming for schools in the south end of WSD to accommodate major growth in French-language programming, which could even include a straightforward swap of schools between L’École La Vérendrye and Earl Grey School, and could affect several other schools.

However, it is unlikely the board would make a final decision this evening.

The 7 p.m. meeting is at the school board’s office at 1577 Wall St. East.