TORONTO - Nancy Kirby says her first priorities as Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association president will be ensuring “equitable and adequate funding” for Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic schools and tackling the $68-million gap in special education funding for Catholic schools.

Kirby, 57, was elected OCSTA’s president at its annual conference in Thunder Bay April 30.

TORONTO - The average full-time elementary school teacher in Ontario’s Catholic system is putting in a 55.7-hour work week, and what counts as a part-time teaching job averages 36.8 hours per week, according to a new study commissioned by the teachers’ union.

TORONTO - Special education, religion and history teacher Donna Marie Kennedy is leaving her current job as president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association with the conviction that social justice is the cornerstone of her union’s existence.

Some of the most profound moments in my spiritual life — outside of  the sacraments and giving birth to my children — have been experienced in an ordinary Catholic elementary school right near my home in Mississauga, where I have run both a Rosary Club and Saints Club. The joys of praying with children, witnessing the prompting of their souls and feeling the abundant grace as they sang with united hearts, often left me speechless.

At times it could also be gut wrenching. Prayer petitions about everything from cancer, family break ups, job losses, to the death of a dear pet, tugged at our hearts. But in those moments of prayer, on Friday’s at lunch time, we had each other and our faith.

TORONTO - Which religious traditions get support from publicly funded schools is going to be an issue in Ontario’s Oct. 10 election, promises Ontario Progressive Conservative education critic Frank Klees.

TORONTO - As Ontario’s high school chaplains try to figure out a new name for their job that fits canon law, they’re also making a bid for some respect. And they’re starting to get it from the province’s bishops.

TORONTO - When the Basilian Fathers let slip that they won’t be appointing any more of their men to positions at Saskatoon’s St. Thomas More College it was no great shock to anyone in the Catholic education community. You can’t appoint men who don’t exist.

TORONTO - For many, Toronto’s St. Michael’s College School is known as one of the finest all-boys Basilian high schools in Canada. But for others, who may not know a rosary from a rose garden, the St. Mike’s name means just one thing: hockey.

TORONTO - David Guterson’s award-winning novel Snow Falling on Cedars has been pulled from school library shelves in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board after a parent complained about its sexual content.

TORONTO - Students within the Toronto Catholic District School Board will be learning more about the history of the Canadian Football League through a program in conjunction with the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.