Yellowknife (Sep 15/06) - There are strongly held beliefs on both sides of the question of whether non-Catholics should be allowed to run for the board of trustees for Yellowknife Catholic Schools.

Yellowknifer's voice-mail poll received 46 calls during the past week, 11 in support of the Catholic-only requirement and 35 against.

Here's a sampling of what people had to say:

"Any trustee on the Catholic school board system should be Catholic, because I believe they truly set the vision for the Catholic school board. Someone who is non-Catholic wouldn't have the same vision and would not be able to pave the way and be part of what the Catholic district is all about. We are truly unique and I think that, as a Catholic myself. I would want my board of trustees to be Catholic to be available to the school district on a number of issues."

"Catholics should be running for the Catholic school board, but they should be practising Catholics."

"You had stated this is a policy the board has chosen. This is a constitutional right. It's not a policy that a board has just adopted. To mislead the public is really unfair."

"I believe that only Catholics should run for the Catholic school board. If non-Catholic parents have an issue with that, they have a choice: their children can go to the public school system. I am a Catholic whose children attend the public system. Personally, I believe there should be no denominational school system, that it should all be one but given the option, then if it's going to be a Catholic school system then it should be represented by Catholics."

"Perhaps the Catholic school board would just like Catholic people to pay taxes? I'm not a Catholic and I've been paying taxes to that school for 26 years."

"My children do go to the schools in the Catholic school system. Yes, absolutely, non-Catholic people should be allowed to run. If their children are registered in the school, they should have a say in how it is run. I guess the Catholic school board solution to that would be to restrict the enrolment to only Catholic students and they would avoid the overcrowding situation they've had over the past few years. If you're prepared to accept the enrolment, they should have a say in how the school board is run."

"Any religious group that operates a school has a constitutional right to be exclusive in its choice of board members and be in a position to ensure that the school board members are model practitioners of their faith. Though our family is not Catholic, we understand the need to preserve faith-based education through the selection of board members."

"As a City of Yellowknife taxpayer, if they want to impose a Catholics only on the Catholic school board, then I think I would have to withdraw my tax support to the Catholic school board. Currently, we have split our taxes, half to public and half to Catholic school boards. If they decided to go ahead and do that, I'm pretty sure we'd have to pull our support from the Catholic school board."

-"I'm dismayed that Yellowknife could have such a thing. I think it's hypocritical for people to think only Catholics could run on the board. There's no way I agree with that."

"If you allow non-Catholic students to attend the school, then non-Catholics should be allowed to run for the board. If they were to only allow Catholics to attend the schools, then they could have only a Catholic person run for the board."

"Amy Hacala should sue the Catholic school board for discrimination."

"Any parent who has a child in the Catholic school system and any taxpayer of the Catholic school system should be eligible to run in the Catholic school board."

-"I would like to say that if the Catholic school board should allow non-Catholic children to attend their schools, I don't see why their non-Catholic parents should be allowed to be part of their future."

"Catholic trustees must lead and set the vision for Yellowknife Catholic Schools. How can they do that if they're not Catholic? Only Catholics can understand Catholic faith. Only people of Catholic faith can understand the faith and use that understanding in their role as trustees of the board."

"I don't think that religion has any place in our schools. Education should be about all religions, not just one. I don't understand why we need more than one school board in our smaller city anyway. I think it would be much more effective to have just one school board and I don't care if it's called a Catholic school board or a public school board. Just financially and probably for decisions on how many people go where, it would be better if there were just one."

"Yellowknife Catholic school board should be just like any other level of government. It should be representative of the people it serves. Until such time as it only accepts Catholic children, that is when it should only accept Catholic trustees."

"I voted no simply because the board chair indicated they should lead by example. So if they want to lead by example, then all staff and all students should be Catholic as well."

"If you're a ratepayer in Yellowknife, you should be allowed to run in the school board. That way you'd have a good diversity of people involved in the board."

"I do think that non-Catholics should be able to run for the Yellowknife Catholic school board. The Catholic board doesn't mind poaching students or allowing students of different faiths attend their district because each student is worth $12,000 or $13,000."

"I feel quite strongly that if kids can go to schools, their parents should be able to be on the school boards."

"I think Catholics are really getting out of hand. They are really hypocritical."

"It's about time somebody stood up to these people. This is where Naziism started, by segregation. That's wrong in this country. If you're Christian and believe in Christ, that's the main thing."