HSD board salvages religious exercises

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This article was published 06/06/2019 (1784 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Religious exercises will proceed after all at four Hanover School Division schools that were in danger of seeing those optional exercises dropped when the upcoming school year kicks off.

At an HSD board meeting on Tuesday evening, trustees unanimously voted to make changes to existing bylaws that will now allow optional religious exercises to take place at Green Valley School, Niverville High School, Landmark Collegiate, and Landmark Elementary School during the 2019-2020 school year.

All HSD schools must receive a minimum of 60 parent signatures by April 30 to allow for voluntary religious exercises to be offered in those schools.

But four schools missed that deadline for the signatures to be submitted.

Last month, board chair Ron Falk said the April 30 deadline is set by the board and not something mandated by the province or the Public Schools Act.

Falk also said at that time he hoped the board could work with the schools in question to see those exercises reinstated.

Falk also claimed back in May that a lack of organization, not a lack of parent signatures, was the reason the four schools failed to submit the petitions on time.