The Sudbury Elementary Unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) and the Sudbury Catholic District School Board have reached a tentative agreement with its Catholic elementary school teachers. On Monday, June 2nd the union membership will vote on the tentative settlement and on Tuesday, June 3rd the Board’s salary negotiation committee will bring the tentative proposal forward to the Trustees with a recommendation for approval. George Middelton, Board Trustee and Chair of the Board’s negotiation committee and Gary Kingerski, OECTA Elementary Unit President, stated that both parties were pleased with the outcome of negotiations.

Ray Vincent, Chair of the Board, thanked teachers and both negotiating committees for achieving a tentative agreement, stating that, “good partnerships ensure improved quality Catholic education for our students and families.”

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board and the Catholic Principals Council of Ontario (CPCO) would like to congratulate Don Hopkins, Principal of St. David School for being selected Principal Of The Year. Don Hopkins was born and raised in Sudbury. A graduate of Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Sudbury, North Bay “Normal” School and Laurentian University in Sudbury, Don considers himself a true Northerner.

Don was a founding member of the local Catholic Principals Council of Ontario, Sudbury unit and has been its chairperson for the last 15 years. Don was nominated for the Principal of the Year Award by his colleagues in Sudbury for his past and continued presence as a gift in the lives of his peers. He takes time to listen, to share his wealth of wisdom, to support decisions and to re-affirm and encourage his colleagues and school community.

For the past four years Don represented his local principals and vice-principals provincially on CPCO’s Council of District Representatives. His colleagues describe Don as a witness to his faith. “He embodies the World Youth Day Theme; he is the “salt of the earth” and is certainly the “light in the world.” The Principal Of The Year Award is presented each year to an individual that demonstrates outstanding school and community leadership. Only five awards are handed out each year across Ontario; one each in the Greater Toronto Area, Western Ontario, Central Ontario, Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario.

The Sudbury unit of Catholic principals and vice-principals congratulates Don on this prestigious honour and thanks CPCO for helping to celebrate this “special man.”

The Northern Ontario Catholic Curriculum Cooperative (NOCCC) will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on May 23, 2003 at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s Education Centre. The NOCCC was established in 1993 to serve English Catholic School Boards in Northern Ontario. Through the development of classroom curriculum resources and in-service sessions, NOCCC continues to provide support and professional development to 11 Catholic school boards from Moosonee to the Manitoba border. The main focus of the Northern Ontario Catholic Curriculum Cooperative continues to be that of the integration of Catholic faith and tradition. Over 150 teachers and writers from member boards have produced resource packages for use in Catholic schools dealing with the unique vision of Catholic education in faith-based communities.

Through the continued support of each of the Catholic School Boards, the NOCCC strives to address both the Provincial and local needs in support of Catholic Education. The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is proud to be a NOCCC partner board and welcomes the opportunity to host this year’s 10-year anniversary celebration. Zandra Zubac, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board and member of the Board of Directors of the NOCCC states that, “The Catholic School system is strengthened by increased learning opportunities for students who are taught curriculum units developed by Catholic teachers.”

For further information on the Northern Ontario Catholic Curriculum Cooperative please contact the Executive Director, Carollynn Desjardins at ph: 1-800-461-9355 or

(705) 840-2000 or via e-mail at noccc@on.aibn.com or by visiting the NOCCC website at www.noccc.on.ca

Ontario School Literacy Test results released by the Education Quality Assessment Office (EQAO) for Secondary Schools indicate that students at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board continue to perform above the provincial average. For the first time, results have been released by level of study, (Academic, Applied and Locally Developed). With respect to the students taking courses at the Academic level, only 3% were unsuccessful in passing both the reading and writing components. The Board welcomes the recent announcement by the Ministry of Education in introducing the new Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course to the curriculum. This credit course will be particularly appropriate for students that have difficulty expressing their literacy skills on a test. The course will combine remediation in reading and writing with an alternative assessment method to meet students’ needs.

View Full EQAO Report

Catholic Education Week is an annual event celebrated by Catholic school boards and schools across the province. It is a time for students, teachers and parents to celebrate teaching excellence and student achievement. This year’s Catholic Education Week theme “Rooted in Christ” provides us with a strong message – we are one with Christ, joined together and rooted as is a tree. Like the tree, we must hold our heads high and tall. We should be proud of the Catholic family we belong to. We are held together by the roots of our faith, our teachings and the sacraments we have received since birth.

Last year, Pope John Paul II united our Catholic communities during World Youth Days by bringing the Holy Cross to various cities. Through this event, he succeeded in joining our Catholic families – rooting the family together as one.

Our Catholic family is rooted in a vision to instill Catholic values, attitudes and actions in its students. Our students demonstrated their knowledge of the Gospel by participating in activities that have a religious focus such as school mass, consoling grieving classmates, helping those in need through food share programs, Jump Rope for Heart and many other worthy events.

Let us encourage our students to maintain their roots in the Catholic faith. We invite all members of our Catholic community to participate in local events marking Catholic Education Week 2003. Above all, we invite everyone to pray that we will be faithful servants to God’s gift of Catholic education in this province. We also encourage all to pray for the people of all nations somehow affected by the unrest of these times. Please pray that our faith will ease some of the troubles and bring peace throughout the world.

Let us make this Catholic Education Week one to remember!

Secondary students with the four Sudbury and District School Boards received copies of the Criminal Code book from Justice Ian Gordon and Justice Randall Lalande in honour of Law Day and Law Week 2003, recently. Law Day is celebrated annually to commemorate the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to provide an enhanced understanding of law and the justice system in Ontario.

The Ontario Justice Education Network in conjunction with the Ontario Bar Association also offers teachers the opportunity of a speaker (Lawyer/Judge) or a courtroom visit during Law Week. This year to mark Law Day, the lawyers of Sudbury, the Judiciary and the Office of the Crown Attorney have collected Criminal Codes to donate to the Sudbury Secondary Schools. The valuable books will used by the students in the Public, Catholic, and French and English School Boards to study various aspects of Canadian law including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Young Offenders Act. The school boards thank the legal community for this donation.

Participating in the Law Day ceremony were, front row (L-R); assistant Crown attorney Susan Stothart, College Notre Dame’s Janelle Giroux; Lockerby Composite’s Aliya Pabani; Macdonald-Cartier’s Liane Briere; St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School, Laura Nurmi; and Charles Conroy, of the law association; top row (L-R); courthouse operations manager Kevin Lyle; Justice Ian Gordon; Justice Randall Lalande; and courthouse operations supervisor Louise Tarini.

Trustees of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board made a number of decisions regarding boundary changes during a special meeting of the board on April 15. Trustees voted in favour of a motion that approved boundary changes in the Valley East Family of Schools for Immaculate Conception and St. Anne elementary schools. Effective September 2003, the existing Immaculate Conception boundary would be extended to Frost Avenue for students in Junior Kindergarten to Grade 3. Current Grade 4, 5 and 6 students living within the new geographic area being added to the Immaculate Conception boundary who would otherwise attend St. Anne school, would also be permitted to attend Immaculate Conception school if they have younger siblings attending Immaculate Conception.

The Board also examined the accommodation review involving St. Mark elementary school in Markstay and its possible consolidation due to low enrolment and high operational costs. In the end, however, Trustees decided to maintain the status quo option for St. Mark school.

Graduates of St. Charles Catholic school in Chelmsford will continue to be received at
St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School and Marymount Academy in Sudbury.

Ray Vincent, Chair of the Sudbury Catholic Board stated that, “The decisions made by the Trustees and the Board this evening continue to focus on improving the quality of Catholic Education. Before making any decision on the motions placed before us by the staff, we review very carefully the information that we receive from school councils, parents and the community at large. We also take into consideration regular and new revenues in the 2003–2004 Student Focused Grant Regulations. Our mandate is to be fiscally responsible in the equitable distribution of our funds for the highest possible benefit of all the students entrusted in the care of the Board.”

Students from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board had a tremendous showing at the 34th Sudbury Regional Science Fair held at Laurentian University this weekend winning 16 out of 44 awards. St. Francis students collected a total of 10 medals followed closely by Marymount Academy students who gathered up 6 medals in the Junior Life, Junior Physical, and Junior Engineering categories.

The top 5 projects from both the Sudbury Catholic and Rainbow District School Boards received gold medals and will now move on to represent the City of Greater Sudbury and their respective schools at the Canada Wide Science Fair which will be held in Calgary, May 11 to 18. Gold medal winners pictured,(left to right) include; Niall Williams, Lockerby Composite School, Andrew Mulloy and Nick Ryan, RL Beattie, Michael Stanford, RL Beattie, Shawn Cashin, St.Francis, and Andrew Pawluch, St. Francis.

Also honoured at the awards ceremony were Colette Mathe, teacher from Ecole Notre Dame and Zandra Zubac, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board for their years of service on the Executive Committee.

Ray Vincent, Chair of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board and Trustee Roberte Cunningham (left), receive a copy of the Children First Charter from City of Greater Sudbury Deputy Mayor, Louise Portelance. The Children First Charter was created by Mayor Jim Gordon and Council’s Children First Roundtable, a volunteer taskforce of parents, service providers and community leaders established in 2000. Endorsed by City Council on June 26, 2002 the Charter is now being officially launched in the community. The Charter creates a community vision recognizing the special needs of children and is intended to guide decision-makers, policy makers, schools and other organizations serving children and their families as well as businesses. Large scale copies of the Charter were presented to representatives of Greater Sudbury school boards to be circulated among the schools.