Catholic Schools In Ontario – Infographic

As part of OCSTA’s efforts to provide information to members that can support effective local communications about Catholic education in Ontario, OCSTA is pleased to share the Catholic Schools infographic.

This document is that can be downloaded, printed and shared with parent councils, parishes, students, teachers and anyone interested in an easy to review document highlighting the facts about Catholic education.

This document was created in partnership with OECTA and the Assembly of Catholic Bishops (our FACE partners).

Catholic-Schools-Infographic_April29

Provincial Consultation on Autism Programs

On May 1, 2019, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services and the Minister of Education announced a province wide consultation on improving autism services and programs, including supports offered by school boards.

Format and Mandate

The format of the consultation for members of the public will include telephone town hall meetings and an on-line questionnaire. In addition, submissions will be accepted by email. Once the information is gathered from these consultations and submissions, an advisory panel of educators, autism experts, parents and adults with autism will review the submissions and make recommendations to the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services on a new, needs based assessment process to support children and youth with autism.

The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2019. For further information visit the following URL:  www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/specialneeds/autism/consultations.aspx.

Hamilton-Wentworth CDSB Raises over $29K for Toonies for Tuition

As a result of the dedicated efforts of the Hamilton-Wentworth CDSB’s Catholic Presidents’ Council, students and staff,  more than $29,000 was raised for the Canadian Catholic School Trustees’ Association’s Toonies for Tuition campaign. The campaign helps to raise funds for students seeking to attend a Catholic school in provinces where there is no public funding for Catholic education.

2019 OCSTA AGM & Conference Highlights

AGM and Conference Photo Album

View speaker presentations and listen to audio recordings

OCSTA celebrated a successful 89th Anniversary at the recent Annual General Meeting and Conference in Toronto (April 25 – 27).  Our sincere thanks and appreciation are extended to our co-host board, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and in particular students, trustees and staff for their dedication in the development and presentation of liturgies, workshops and the very successful Silent Auction fundraiser for the  CCSTA Toonies for Tuition campaign.

We’re pleased to acknowledge the following participating individuals and schools from the Dufferin-Peel CDSB:

Sharon Hobin, Chair
Thomas Thomas, Vice Chair
Brea Corbet, Trustee
Anna da Silva, Trustee
Luz del Rosario, Trustee
Frank Di Cosola, Trustee
Mario Pascucci, Trustee
Stefano Pascucci, Trustee
Shawn Xaviour, Trustee
Marianne Mazzorato, Director of Education
Patricia Dal Ben
Silvana Gos
Francesca Guinci
Samuel Macaluso
Shelagh Peterson
Kevin Sylvestre
Julie Webster

Music Ministry
Bishop Scalabrini Separate School Choir
—Music Director: Kevin Gregg
St. Joan of Arc Catholic Secondary School Choir
—Music Director: Nancy Bodsworth

A Special Recognition – Corpus Christi Elementary Choir:

Due to unforseen circumstances the Corpus Christi Catholic Elementary Choir was unable to perform at the OCSTA “Faith in Action” Conference as planned, however, following is a link to a recording of the students performing the official Catholic Education Week song for 2019 (click on image below to be taken to the page where the  video can be played):

OCSTA Elections

OCSTA Regional Directors – Election Results:

Acclamations:

Region 1 Colleen Landers, Northeastern CDSB
Region 3 Michael Bellmore, Sudbury CDSB
Region 5 Linda Ward, St. Clair CDSB
Region 10 Todd Lalonde, CDSB of Eastern Ontario

Election:

Region 2 Frank Bastone, Kenora CDSB
Region 4 Marino Gazzola, Wellington CDSB
Region 9 Linda Ainsworth, Peterborough Victoria Northumberland & Clarington CDSB
Region 11 Clifford Casey, Brant Haldimand Norfolk, CDSB and Kathy Burtnik, Niagara CDSB

OCSTA Award Recipients

OCSTA was pleased to award the 2019 Trustee Award of Merit to:

1. Trustee Vikki Dupuis served on the Wellington Catholic Board for 25 years. A former Vice Chair of the board, Trustee Dupuis served this year as the Project Manager for the re-structuring of Kids Ability – a local community service agency serving children and families in Guelph and Wellington.  Trustee Dupuis is also a compassionate voice and champion of inclusion as the board’s representative on the Special Education Advisory Committee.
2. Former Northwest Catholic District School Board Trustee, Anne Marie Fitzgerald was a Trustee with the board for 24 years. During that time, she served for several years as Chair of the board and one year as Vice Chair. Throughout her term as Trustee, Anne Marie helped develop the board’s initial governance policies and took that insight and regional perspective to the provincial level as a Regional Director on the OCSTA board.

Student Trustee Alumni Award

The 2019 Student Trustee Alumni award was presented to Dr. Trevor Arnason – former student trustee with the Ottawa Catholic School Board.

Trevor is a public health and family physician who recently returned to Ottawa from Nova Scotia, where he was Medical Officer of Health for Halifax and part-time physician at Dalhousie Student Health Services. He is currently Associate Medical Officer of Health at Ottawa Public Health where he works with his team to protect the health of the community and decrease health inequities.

25-Year Service Award

Many Catholic trustees dedicate a significant part of their lives to the service of their local schools and the goals of Catholic education in this province. To honour that contribution the Association awarded the following trustees with 25-year service awards:

Elizabeth Crowe, York CDSB
Vikki Dupuis, Wellington CDSB
Dave Howard, Renfrew County CDSB, and
Linda Ward, St. Clair CDSB