Trustees, senior administration, principals, vice-principals, teachers, students, and parents along with staff of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board joined special guests and stakeholders in launching the Board’s vision at Marymount Academy on September 16, 2008.

Catherine McCullough, the Board’s Director of Education unveiled the new vision to a capacity crowd of well-wishers who had gathered in the Marymount gymnasium with great anticipation. The unveiling ceremony included an honour guard procession by the Knights of Columbus followed by a special paraliturgy, a blessing of the banners by Deacon Steve Callaghan and a candle lighting ceremony by all of the Board’s representatives that helped create the vision.

In her opening remarks to the audience, the Director stated that the goal of arriving at a vision and a subsequent vision statement was a long and fruitful journey involving numerous individuals, groups, sectors, and partners in Catholic Education. “A vision statement is vital to any organization because it provides a sense of commonality,” stated McCullough. “A shared vision gives us a common language that binds us together. We are all connected when we share the same vision. The standards that define the individual and the entity must be clearly conveyed in this one simple message.”

Paula Peroni, Chair of the Board echoed McCullough’s comments and noted that the quest for the vision statement was an intricate and complex process due to the large number of stakeholders that this vision represented. The catalyst to develop a vision statement began by Catholic stakeholders and from the Institute for Catholic Education Symposium in March of 2007.

“It was agreed by all parties that we needed to celebrate the presence of Catholic Education in our community,” stated Peroni in her address to the crowd. “The preliminary discussions began amongst the governance of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, including the six Trustees, two Student Trustees, and the Senior Administration team.” Throughout a series of consultations with principals, vice-principals, board office staff, teaching staff and education assistants, support staff, parents, parish partners, and students, the vision statement became increasingly refined. Each party was asked for their response to the working vision and this feedback was implemented until a consensus could be reached. The final vision statement, Sudbury Catholic Schools… Creating Hopes and Dreams Through Excellence is a culmination of insight and experience from all board representatives. “It is with excitement and optimism that we look forward to implementing our vision statement during the 2008-2009 academic year in each of our schools,” concluded Peroni.

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