Dear Waterloo Catholic Families, 

On behalf of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, we are thrilled to welcome you and your family to the 2024-25 school year. Whether you are returning or joining us for the first time, we hope you had a wonderful summer and share our excitement for the year ahead. 

We can welcome our students back to school thanks to the dedication and hard work of our Facilities, IT, Human Resources, Catholic Education Centre staff, and your child’s school staff. Their efforts, both behind the scenes and directly with our students, ensure that we can continue providing a quality, inclusive, and faith-based education. 

This year marks the third and final year of our Pastoral Plan and Multi-Year Strategic Plan. Our faith is the foundation of our work, and this year’s pastoral theme, “Ignite,” reminds us that “we are the People of God, discerning our mission to serve, ignited to be pilgrims of Hope.” This is in alignment with the universal Church and Pope Francis, who has declared 2025 to be a Jubilee Year. This is a time of great spiritual and social significance in the Church. The motto of Jubilee 2025 is Pilgrims of Hope. This Jubilee Year is a special time for us to grow in right relationship with God, creation, and with our brothers and sisters.  We look forward to a year of hope and renewal as we ignite our faith in service to our communities. 

To see how our schools are embracing this theme, follow the hashtag #WCDSBignite for updates throughout the year. 

In addition to fostering civility within our schools and ensuring respectful interactions between parents and staff, we remain committed to respecting the “Right to Disconnect from Work” guidelines. These guidelines help set parameters for employees’ availability, promoting a positive shift in our organizational culture. 

Most of you are aware that the Ministry of Education released updates to PPM 170 (School board communication with parents) and PPM 128 (The Provincial Code of Conduct and School Board Codes of Conduct), last spring. To see how WCDSB has incorporated these changes, please review the recently updated Administrative Procedures below: 

• APC001 (Communication Guidelines) 
• APC052 (Responsible Use of Information Technology and Electronic Data – Student) 
• APC018 (Code of Conduct) 

As always, the well-being and learning of our students remain at the heart of everything we do. We are ready to support students and families as they transition into the new school year and beyond. 

Those interested in becoming part of our vibrant school communities can register online. 

We look forward to continuing to nurture a love of learning and teaching across our schools, which proudly reflect a diverse tapestry of races, cultures, ethnicities, and languages. With the unwavering support of families, employees, and community members, we are confident that this will be another #WCDSBawesome year. 

Welcome back! 

Sincerely, 

Tyrone Dowling
Director of Education 

As Waterloo Region continues to grow, Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) has also seen significant growth. This growth is reflected in our number of kindergarten classes, which have increased from 148 to 153 in the last year alone. Interest in the WCDSB Extended Day program has also been steadily rising, leading to the introduction of a waitlist in January 2024. Due to program capacities and the ongoing shortage of Early Childhood Educators (ECEs), we had to implement caps on our programs in January 2024 and anticipated that the waitlist would remain active into September 2024.

Throughout the registration period, we have been closely monitoring our registration numbers, with the aim of raising caps wherever possible. On August 21, we increased caps in 4 programs, resulting in 52 students getting space in the Extended Day programs.

WCDSB remains committed to working towards increasing program capacity. Over the summer, we hired 24 new ECEs and will continue to actively recruit additional positions.

We will continue to review staffing and programming capacity regularly and raise caps as we can, to meet demand and move students off the waitlist.

For more information, please see our waitlist policy at the link listed below.

Waitlist-Policy-and-Procedures.pdf (wcdsb.ca)

As we prepare for the Catholic Community Foundation of Waterloo Region Links Fore Learning 2024 golf event, please see below for a link to our online silent auction.   This aspect of our event is a key contributor to our proceeds, which go directly to our programs that benefit our schools, the parishes and our community partners.

New for this year, the online auction will not close with the end of the golf tournament, we will close the online auction on Monday August 26^th; and for those in attendance for golf or lunch, there will still be a small selection of items to bid on exclusively at the golf course.

It is our belief that this format will provide our community partners and supporters who may not be able to attend the golf tournament with a great opportunity to support us.

Items may be previewed at the moment now with the auction opening August 14^th at noon.  Please check daily as we will continue to add items donated by our sponsors.

Link to auction:  https://www.32auctions.com/LFL2024

Link to Event:  Links fore Learning 2024 | Catholic Community Foundation of Waterloo Region (ccfowr.ca)  – Golfers are always welcome!!

Thank you!

Links Fore Learning Committee
Catholic Community Foundation of Waterloo Region