A long-awaited answer over the secular schooling issue in Morinville will come to a head on Thursday night.
The school board’s partner in providing secular education next school year will be announced at a 7 p.m. meeting at Morinville Community High School. The board is also releasing the results of a public opinion survey conducted by a company called Pivotal Research.
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools board chair Lauri-Ann Turnbull said the board wants to let the entire community know the new plan.
“It would be a chance to share the information from Pivotal and a chance to introduce the community to the education partner.”
Turnbull provided few details on the organization that will be offering the secular option, adding she wanted to share the information with the community first.
The board has been taken to task over the lack of secular education options in Morinville, where Greater St. Albert Catholic is the public school division. The issue was brought forward by a group of parents last fall.
The board runs all four of Morinville’s schools. While students can opt-out of religious education, the board does tell parents religious education permeates other areas of instruction.
Parent Donna Hunter recently left Morinville over the issue. Even though her children won’t be attending the schools next year she is going to be at Thursday’s meeting to see the outcome.
“The only reason my children aren’t going to a school in Morinville is because of this situation and I want to be sure there is a solution,” she said. “It would be really nice to finally know who that educational partner is going to be and that they are going to have something in place for Sept. 1.”
The pace of this change has been extremely frustrating, she said, adding she never wanted to leave Morinville. When school registration time came and there was no information on the secular option, she felt she had little choice.
“The pace this has moved at is completely unacceptable. It has been like the movement of a glacier.”
Hunter said she is intrigued by the survey results, but she doesn’t believe it was necessary. Secular education is a right and should not be subject to whether it’s popular, she added.
“We have always maintained that the survey to begin with is unnecessary. They are breaking the law.”
