Meetings

Inaugural Meeting

Monday, December 2, 2019 – Meeting Agenda Package

Public Board Meeting

Monday, December 9, 2019 — Meeting Agenda Package

Highlights

Election of Chair and Vice Chair

On December 2, 2019 the Board of Trustees re-elected Cambridge / North Dumfries Trustee Bill Conway as Chair of the Board, and Waterloo / Woolwich / Wellesley Trustee Melanie Van Alphen as Vice-Chair of the Board.

The Board of Trustees is comprised of the following representatives:

Bill Conway (Cambridge / North Dumfries) – Chair

Manuel da Silva (Cambridge / North Dumfries)

Kevin Dupuis (Kitchener / Wilmot)

Jeanne Gravelle (Waterloo / Wellesley / Woolwich)

Wendy Price (Cambridge / North Dumfries)

Greg Reitzel (Kitchener / Wilmot)

Brian Schmalz (Kitchener / Wilmot)

Melanie Van Alphen (Waterloo / Wellesley / Woolwich) – Vice-Chair

Tracey Weiler (Kitchener / Wilmot)

Meghan Cymbron and Rori Schaefer are the Student Trustees.

FSL Program Update

English-language school boards in Ontario are required to provide students with a minimum of 600 hours of French instructional hours by the end of elementary school. In secondary schools, one FSL credit (110 hours) is compulsory for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). A second FSL course can be counted towards the compulsory credits required for the OSSD.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board currently offers four program options for French as a Second Language:

• Core French (offered in grades 4-12 at all sites)
• Intensive French (offered in grade 5 at 3 sites and grade 9-10 at 1 site)
• Advanced Placement (AP) and pre-AP French (offered in grades 9-12 at 2 sites and grades 9-11 at 1 site)
• French Immersion – offered in grade 1 (at 2 sites), grades 1-4 (at 1 site), and grades 1-5 (at 2 sites)

In 2020/21 French immersion will be offered at the following schools:

• St. Anne CES – Kitchener
• Sir Edgar Bauer CES – Waterloo
• Holy Rosary CES – Waterloo
• St. Luke CES – Waterloo
• Our Lady of Fatima CES – Cambridge
• St. Peter CES – Cambridge

Highlights from each of these four program areas are available on pages 18-21 via this link: Meeting Agenda Package

Well Being Plan – Equity Action Plan

As a Catholic learning community, we are inspired and guided by the Gospel in our pursuit of equity and justice as a value rooted in our faith. In our Catholic/Christian tradition, we have a moral imperative to act intentionally to ensure those we serve – staff, students and communities – are treated with respect and dignity as brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Ministry of Education made a commitment to every student in the province of Ontario that regardless of ‘ancestry, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, language, physical and intellectual ability, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or other factors’ (Equity Action Plan, p. 8), all students should be able to access the curriculum, feel safe at school, and also have a sense of belonging. Accordingly, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board’s (WCDSB) vision commits us to be the “heart of the community”, offering “success for each and a place for all.” In support of our vision, the current theme of our three-year pastoral plan is “Called to Belong”.

At WCDSB, our Equity, Diversity and Learning (EDL) Committee works to build educator capacity to serve all students and assist in removing identified barriers to success. We employ a lens of liberation theology with a strong emphasis on the social teaching of preferential option for the poor. This involves empowering students and their families to advocate for change so that they may not just survive but thrive in our school communities.

Our work is guided by the four priority areas of the Ontario Education Equity Action Plan:

• School and classroom practices
• Leadership, governance and human resource practices
• Data collection, integration and reporting
• Organizational culture change

A series of highlights from each of these priority areas in available on pages 22-26 via this link: Meeting Agenda Package

Director’s Annual Report

A highlight of every year in the WCDSB is the release of the Director’s Annual Report. Ever school board in the province is required to produce such a report and ours is always a comprehensive and wide-ranging look back the previous year’s many accomplishments. More than perhaps anything else we produce it provides a multi-faceted illustration of what we mean when say our schools are “Heart of the Community”.

The report is available online at https://annual.wcdsb.ca

Board Chair’s Update

Each month, Board Chair Bill Conway reports on the activities of the Board of Trustees. The report for December 2019 is available on page 35 via this link: Meeting Agenda Package

Upcoming Board Meetings

Committee of the Whole Board Meeting

Monday, January 13, 2020

Waterloo Region Catholic Education Centre

Regular Public Board Meeting

Monday, January 27, 2020

Waterloo Region Catholic Education Centre

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board, representing more than 96,000 Catholic school supporters, operates 48 schools and four adult education facilities, serving more than 40,000 elementary, secondary and continuing education students in Waterloo Region – continuing a 183-year tradition of quality, inclusive, faith-based education. Follow us on Twitter: @WCDSBNewswire – #WCDSBAwesome.

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For more information, please contact:

John Shewchuk – Chief Managing Officer | (519) 578-3660 | john.shewchuk@wcdsb.ca