At a special meeting held to review the Marymount enrolment issue on Tuesday, April 30th, Trustees of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board passed a motion directing the administration to increase enrolment at Marymount Academy for the 2002-2003 and future school years. Trustees reviewed a number of different enrolment scenarios presented to them by Mr. Robert Boucher, Director of Education for the SCDSB and in the end decided to pass a resolution that would increase the number of Grade 7 students from 78 to 92 for September 2002 and from 52 to 90 for September 2003, plateauing at 90 for each following year. The Grade 7 and 8 programs will have a total enrolment of 180 pupils, with six classrooms of 30 students each. In addition, renovations inside the school totaling approximately $110,000 will be undertaken as needed to create up to one an extra classroom for 2003-2004, two more in 2004-2005 and one more in 2005 ?2006.

The decision to allow increased enrolment in Grades 7 to Grade 12 will bring the school’s enrolment to 620 students. It also follows through on the mandate of parents, teachers and Marymount’s School council who had asked Trustees to create more classrooms and to increase the enrolment at the Academy. The approved solution continues to meet the established mission of providing quality education in an all girls Catholic school for advanced academic, and enriched programming only.

The enrolment of Marymount will grow from 419 to 491 in September 2002 to 556 in

September 2003 and stabilizing to approximately 620 in September 2004. The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is pleased to have been able to provide a responsible and balanced system solution, which will ensure a solid enrolment of 180 Grade 7 and 8 elementary students and 440 Grade 9 to 12 secondary students at Marymount Academy.

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is pleased to announce the opening of its new Catholic Secondary School in Valley East as Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School. The parents and registered students of the school were involved in researching and evaluating various names in a “name the school project” to finally bring forward this recommendation. Future activities will include selecting the colours and style of the new uniforms, the school mascot and more.

Phase one of the board’s plan is already underway with renovations of its one-year temporary site at the River Road Campus (formerly St. Kevin’s school) in Val Caron. The registrations for September 2002 now count 57 grade nine students and are growing as more students continue to register. The second phase of the plan is to transform for September 2003, the former St. Anne’s school in the tradition of Catholic education in Sudbury, into its permanent most technologically advanced state of the art secondary school in Valley East, known as Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School.

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board has also selected Mr. Guy Mathieu to be the principal of Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School in Valley East. Born and raised in Valley East, Mr. Mathieu has strong ties to the community and to his home parish St-Jacques in Hanmer. He also possesses an extensive educational background in both the secondary and elementary panels. With reference to the role that he will play in helping to mould the new institution, Mr. Mathieu stated that, “The creation of Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School in Valley East is an idea whose time has finally come. I am very excited about being a member of the team that will assist in shaping this new faith-filled learning community. Our vision for the school is to establish a safe environment for learning that is visibly Christ centred and academically student focussed”

In establishing Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School in Valley East, the board is following through on its mandate received from 89% of the respondents of an exhaustive consultation survey of all Catholic supporters in Capreol and the Valley over the last year. According to Mr. Jody Cameron, Chairperson of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, “The Catholic Board has never wavered from its commitment to provide quality, Catholic education for the students in Valley East and Capreol.” Mr. Robert Boucher, Director of Education, further adds that, “After months of preparation, we are now ready to move forward with our plan to offer equal educational opportunities to our Catholic Secondary students in Valley East. The selection of Mr. Mathieu as a qualified and dynamic individual with the experience to take on the challenges as principal of this new school was an integral part of our plan. We have every confidence in his abilities to lead this school to a great success”

With respect to future growth and expansion of Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School, Mr. Boucher stated that, “The Sudbury Catholic Board has the confidence the Catholic supporters, parents and students to continue to be involved in determining and shaping the unique identity of the new Catholic Secondary School as it grows one grade at a time”.