{mosimage}TORONTO - If Catholics thought the debate over publicly funded religious education in Ontario’s last provincial election campaign was bruising, they should have a little history lesson. They would find that today’s battles are sedate compared to those of the 19th century.

{mosimage}TORONTO - How much your kid’s teacher makes and whether or not home room will be held on a picket line is likely to be determined at provincial framework discussions being held now as an overture to teacher-school board collective bargaining later this year.

{mosimage}MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - There will be no more sweating it old school in Catholic schools west of Toronto. The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has passed a no-sweat policy for school uniforms, team jerseys and employee clothing.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board has closed a  $10-million deal with the Sisters of St. Joseph that will keep the board’s downtown, all-girls high school exactly where it has been since 1960.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board has launched its version of the Character Development Initiative proposed by the government of Ontario in October last year.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Catholic school boards in the Greater Toronto Area have all chosen the chairpersons who will lead them into the new year.

{mosimage}MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - Where Halton opted for a ban, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has decided to go with a note.

St. Andrew’s SchooolTORONTO - Like most refugees in Canada, Khulood Jarjass appreciates her new homeland for its relative safety, the freedom, the opportunity to dream again of a future for herself and her family. But what really excites the mother of three and former high school math teacher is a free Catholic education for her kids.

“When I heard in Canada it’s free — Oh my God!” she said. “I was so happy.”

Her kids range in age from seven to 13, Grades 2 to 7, all in St. Andrew’s in Toronto’s Rexdale neighbourhood. The Jarjass kids spent a year-and-a-half in crowded Syrian classrooms with a mass of other refugee students. Their teachers couldn’t help but look at the Iraqi students as an added burden and the Syrian kids saw the Iraqis as invaders in their schools. Syrian and Iraqi kids fought in and out of the classrooms.
sex educationTORONTO - Ontario's Catholic bishops, teachers and trustees say they're eager to co-operate with the education ministry as it revamps the province's controversial sex education curriculum.

A joint statement issued April 28 by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association, said the three groups look forward to participating in a review that was announced earlier in the week by Premier Dalton McGuinty. A new province-wide sex-ed curriculum that was to launch in September was sent back to the drawing board by McGuinty following howls of protest from several parent groups.

{mosimage}BURLINGTON, Ont. - Catholic Grade 8 students in Oakville, Burlington and surrounding areas won't be vaccinated on school property against a virus that causes cervical cancer. Halton Catholic District School Board voted 5-4 to reverse last year's decision to host public health nurses giving the Gardasil shot against HPV to girls whose parents have requested it.