School Designations

(1997 08 22)

Webmaster's editorial note:

This document may be of some historical interest. It dates from the first year of the present school board’s operation. This was before the 1997 Amendment to Term 17 of Newfoundland’s Terms of Union (in the Constitution of Canada) replaced the former denominational system with the present single system of publicly funded K-12 education in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Until 1997, control over the publicly funded school system in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador was exercised by denominational school boards. There was one school board for all Pentecostal schools in the province and one school board for all Seventh Day Adventist schools in the province. The province was divided into several geographical regions, each of which had a school board for Roman Catholic schools. In 1969 the Anglican, United Church and Salvation Army systems (later joined by the Presbyterian and Moravian systems) combined to offer an interdenominational system, operated by more than a dozen “Integrated” school boards. The other three denominations chose to remain separate at that time.

From 1985 at least two thirds of the 18 members of each school board were directly elected. The remaining members were appointed by the leaders of the respective Churches. With few exceptions, non-adherence to the appropriate religion was sufficient for a person to be barred from seeking election to a school board.

The referendum of 1995 resulted in an amendment to the Constitution of Canada which created two types of school: “Uni-denominational” and “Inter-denominational”. The appropriate Church gained control over parts of the curriculum and over the appointment and dismissal of personnel in uni-denominational schools, but had a say only in the religious education courses in interdenominational schools. However, the separate school boards were all combined into ten interdenominational school boards, with guaranteed proportions of elected representatives of the various denominations that held these constitutional rights.

In its first year of operation, the Avalon East School Board spent considerable time determining the designation of schools as uni- or inter-denominational. Barely one month after the conclusion of the process, a Court injunction overturned these decisions. The document below summarizes the initial and revised decisions.

Less than three months after the injunction was granted, the province held a second referendum which led to a second amendment to the same term in the Constitution of Canada. All denominational designations have now been swept away and the Churches no longer have any control over the administration of the publicly funded school system in Newfoundland and Labrador.

[End of editorial note]

Below is a table showing the denominational status of each school in the Avalon East School Board district, both as decided in 1997 June and as changed by the court injunction of 1997 July.

Single School Communities

Inner City High

St. John’s West

St. John’s East & North