Activity Ban Legality Asked

An opinión on the legality of an informal "Wednesday Agreement" between the Ann Arbor Public Schools and the city's churches was requested last night by School Trustee Richard M. Wood. The agreement, apparently formulated about 1954, says the schools will keep Wednesday free of after-school and evening student activities so the day can be used for church-related activities. School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. told the trustees no record of the agreement can be found in the school board minutes, but administrative personnel are certain such a pact was informally concluded about 15 years ago. Wood asked last month that the agreement be looked into after the athletic directors of the Ann Arbor secondary schools recommended to the board that the "unrealistic ban on afterschool activities be lifted as soon as possible." The Wednesday Agreement decreases the amount oí time available in the schools for extra-curricular activities, especially sports activities. Westerman said he thought there was "some value" in continuing the Wednesday Agreement, since it was more convenient to the schools to allow one day for church-related activities than all five days in the week. According to a law passed a few years ago, the schools must release a child from school for two hours per week for religious activities upon request of the parent. Westerman said a survey conducted three years ago showed about 12 per cent of the school district's fourth, fifth and sixth graders participated in churchrelated activities on Wednesdays. Trustee Hazen J. Schumacher Jr. called the Wednesday Agreement a "mutually beneficial arrangement," and said the school could be very disrupted if children were taken out of class any day a parent wished for religious instruction - as is allowed by the law. Wood said he was not necessarily suggesting the policy be changed, but he feels the legality of the agreement should be determined. Roscoe O. Bonisteel Jr., the board's legal counsel, will look into the matter.