Feature/Education

To Comment on this article Click Here

For the first time, the Bluewater District School Board (BDSB) will be faced with the task of drafting a policy called, "Distribution of Religious Materials".

The issue has come to the forefront as a result of Gideon bibles being made available to students in grade five, only after a parental consent form signed and if done outside of instructional time, although there is no written policy regarding the practice .

The tradition is more than 60 years old and has been under policy reviews in a number of other school boards, with Waterloo deciding to stop the tradition.   In addition, the Gideons distribute scripture in the Catholic system to students in Grade seven and in local Mennonite schools.

The BDSB  'policy committee' will see the draft policy for the first time on December 6th.  It then will have a choice, to either recommend to the Board of Trustees that the draft policy go out for further comment or ask that additional work be done on it.

In either case, the draft will then go to the entire Board of Trustees to review and decide when, and in what form, it will go out for review.

According to Committee Chair, Kevin Larson, "It will take perhaps three months to solicit feedback and then for our staff to review that feedback.  The policy will be re[-worked (if necessary) and be sent back to policy sub-committee and then eventually sent to the entire trustee board for a decision."

Larson added that there is no decision to be made on December 6th.  "This is just the start of the process that will take a few months," he explained.

The December 6th meeting is to take place at the Board of Education offices in Chesley (4:00 p.m.) and is open to the public.

^{for world news, books, sports, movies ...}

Monday, November 28, 2011