School ditches homosexuality ban in teacher pledge
Master’s Academy and College pledge ‘ unacceptable,’ says education minister
A Calgary school changed its agreement with Palliser Regional Schools on Thursday to remove a requirement that teachers refrain from engaging in“homosexuality” and “any other immorality.”
The move by Master’s Academy and College came a day after queries from the Herald about the legality of wording in the staff covenant posted on its website — and in the immediate aftermath of sharp words from the province’s education minister.
Teachers at the former Christian private school on Crowchild Trail S. W. have been forced to sign the controversial pledge since the school joined the public system in 2008.
Staff with Education Minister David Eggen said they were told by Palliser school board officials Thursday morning that the controversial pledge was still “active,” but that they hoped to renegotiate the wording of the requirement during a mediation session with the facility next week.
“It’s entirely unacceptable and we will pursue it,” Eggen said in an interview. “The disturbing part is we are forwarding funds to a school board who is then, perhaps, executing an entirely inappropriate imposition on their workers.”
By late afternoon, Palliser’s chief superintendent had written to the Herald to say the society that runs the school had now inked a revised agreement — approved in private by the Lethbridge- based board last fall but never publicly released — that requires staff only to “maintain a Christian lifestyle in accordance with Biblical principles.”
“We didn’t realize that our society partner at Master’s was under the impression the ( staff covenant) could be updated without new signatures,” Kevin Gietz said.
“We thought ( it) wasn’t being signed due to other discussions about the master agreement.
While the new agreement was only inked Thursday, Gietz said Master’s had been “working with” the new staff covenant “for months.”
He did not reply to emailed questions about when staff at the school were informed of the change and when they had last been required to sign the pledge that forbid “common law or extra- marital relationships” as well as those with a person of the same sex.
A former teacher at Master’s, whom the Herald has agreed not to identify, said staff were required to sign the covenant when they were first hired and at the outset of each school year.
The new pledge does not define “Biblical principles,” but the old version of the covenant had a citation from First Corinthians to make things clear.
“Do not be deceived,” reads the citation. “Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Once a rural school district in southwestern Alberta with declining enrolment, Palliser has seen its numbers and financial resources double in the past decade as Christian private schools in Calgary joined the board and began receiving full public funding for each student as well as taxpayer money to maintain and operate facilities.
Glenmore Christian Academy in the city’s southwest left the board over a year ago and returned to private school status, but Palliser has seen its enrolment surge this fall with the addition of the Calgary Islamic School to its fold of faithbased facilities.
While they are part of the public system, many still charge fees in the thousands of dollars to parents each year to cover the costs of religious instruction and building replacement that’s not subsidized from the public purse.
In the aftermath of Herald stories in April 2014 about another Calgary facility that Palliser trustees had agreed could threaten students with expulsion and staff with dismissal if they engaged in a “lifestyle of sexual immorality,” the provincial government demanded changes to the board’s agreements with its faith- based schools.
Mark Ramsankar, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, expressed dismay Thursday that nearly a year and a half later some of the revised agreements were still not in place.
“My initial reaction is shock that this would be put forward for someone to sign as a condition of employment,” Ramsankar said.
“If you want to be in the public system and receive full public funding, then you need to follow the rules in terms of fee structures, accessibility for families, and equal opportunity for those who work in the building.”