Sudbury Catholic District School Board

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SCDSB Elects New Chair and Vice-Chair at Inaugural Meeting

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The Sudbury Catholic District School Board elected its new chair and vice-chair at the inaugural meeting of the board held at the Catholic Education Centre on December 4, 2007.

George Middleton will assume the position of Chair of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. Mr. Middleton is serving his sixth term as Trustee and has held the position of vice-chair on two previous occasions. Middleton “It is indeed a great pleasure to assume the position of Chair of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board,” stated Middleton. “Our successes as a Board are a tribute to the teamwork, cooperation and dedication of our students, parents, staff and partners in education. I look forward to continuing to build on these strong relationships and to working in concert with our partners in Catholic education to meet the challenges of the coming year.”

Paula Peroni is the Board’s new Vice-Chair having served previously as Chair of the Board from 1999 to 2001 and from 2004 to 2007. Mrs. Peroni is also the current vice-president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) and the first vice-president of the Canadian Catholic School Trustees’ Association (CCSTA). “I would like to thank my fellow colleagues and members of the board for placing their confidence in me and allowing me to take on the role as Vice-Chair,” stated Peroni. “I will continue to use the experience and insights I have obtained as a Trustee with this board over the last ten years to champion the cause of Catholic education, not only at the local level but at the provincial and national level as well.”

Advent: Let the Play Begin

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Everyone likes a good play. A good play draws you in. It keeps you perched on the edge of your seat wondering how things will turn out. A good play has characters that you cheer or jeer. A good play fills you with a sense of excitement and wonder and resolves itself in a way that leaves you feeling satisfied. I am sure everyone reading this article can or has by now filled in the blank with their own good play and recalls all of the feelings it evoked.

Advent is the beginning of a good play. It is the beginning of the story of Jesus. Like a good beginning, Advent draws us into the mystery of the story through all of our senses. Music, candles, gestures and symbols create an atmosphere that tells us something different is happening. Stories about surprising events of births unexpected tell us that we are about to enter into a time that is very different. Voices from the past fill us with hope as we struggle with challenges of poverty, violence and exclusion. The beginning of the play seems to hold out a promise of better times to come.

Advent is only the beginning. The drama unfolds as we move from the birth of Jesus to his young adulthood, baptism and ministry of preaching and healing and ends with his passion, death and resurrection. The drama of Jesus is retold during the year and in different ways we are drawn into this drama and encouraged to see the drama as our own story. Participants are uplifted, saddened, inspired, challenged and comforted as we sing, pray, listen to stories and reach out to others in service.

There are high points in the drama such as Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, the Triduum, Pentecost and Ascension Sunday but each Sunday is an opportunity to relive the whole drama and here once again the gestures, symbols, music and stories are a means of pointing to a deeper reality as a good play should.

What makes drama engaging is that in some way we recognize our own story in
The Story. The more we recognize our story in the Jesus Story, the more engaged we will become in the drama. Each of us has experienced times of insecurity, exclusion, doubt and fear. Jesus experienced all of these but his essential message which he called the good news of the kingdom confronted all these feelings and provided a radical alternative to a way of live which drags us down.

So, let the play begin. Become engaged in the drama making the Story your story. Take time to see how the events in the life of Jesus parallel your own life events. Take heart knowing that there is a resolution which will leave you satisfied much more than you could ever have expected.

Sudbury’s Elgin Street Mission Benefits from the Generosity of St. Ben’s Students

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Frank Rocca, Department Head, Physical Education, St. Benedict CSS, Benny the Bear, (St. Benedict CSS Mascot) and Veronica Summerhill a Grade 12 student at St. Benedict CSS recently presented a $250 cheque to the City of Greater Sudbury’s Elgin Street Mission. The money was raised during the 50/50 draws at the “Bears” home football games. In addition to the cash donation, St. Benedict Catholic School students are also undertaking a “Mitten Drive” to help the Elgin Street Mission in providing winter clothing (mittens, hats, scarves, coats, etc.) for the less fortunate throughout the winter.

Donations will be accepted at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School, 2993 Algonquin Road, Sudbury from now until December 21 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

St. James Catholic School Hosts Aboriginal “Mishoomis and Nikoomis Day”

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As part of its School Improvement Plan, the St. James Catholic School Parent Council initiated an Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Committee to promote Native cultural understanding and appreciation to both native and non-native students.

Mishoomis (grandfathers) and Nikoomis, (grandmothers) of the St. James Catholic School’s Native students were invited to visit the school to make a variety of presentations such as; eagle feather teaching, native craft making, aboriginal storytelling, how to clean a fish, how to do bead work, how to make moccasins, etc. One child in each class had been linked up with their own grandparent for the morning event.

View video of the event on the Sudbury Star’s website.

SCDSB Proud Participant in Sudbury Elementary Volleyball League

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St. Raphael, Marymount and St. Francis are proud participants in the Sudbury Elementary Volleyball League. The league includes more than 350 athletes and is in it’s 7th season. Boasting 19 girls’ teams in two divisions and 13 boys’ teams in a single division, the league develops Sudbury athletes throughout the area from all four local school boards.

Teams have competed over 4 Saturdays from the beginning of the school year, and at the end of league play going into playoffs SCDSB teams are ranked as follows:

Boys:
St. Raphael – 3rd
St. Francis – 6th

Girls Division 1:
Marymount A – 1st
St. Francis – 6th
St. Raphael – 10th

Girls Division 2:
Marymount B – 7th

The Sudbury Elementary Volleyball League is organized by Diables Sports Club – a non-profit organization. They take care of all scheduling, stats, hosting and other organizational duties.

SCDSB Proud Partner in RISK WATCH

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Educators at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board work hard to help students prepare for a bright and challenging future. For this reason, teaching children the skills and strategies they require to make educated decisions to avoid preventable injury and death has always been of paramount importance.

Students from Ms. Marcon’s Gr. 5/6 class at St. Michael Catholic School learned first hand how to minimize their risks through a presentation on “RISK WATCH” delivered by the City of Greater Sudbury’s Fire and Police Services recently.

Leo Frappier, Public Safety Officer, Greater Sudbury Fire Services and Denise Fraser, School Liaison Officer, Greater Sudbury Police Force presented the theme of personal safety through the use of the innovative “Hazard House.”

Risk Watch is an injury prevention program from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). “It is our hope that all students within the Sudbury Catholic District School Board will learn and reinforce behaviours to prevent injury,” states Sandra St. Denis, Principal of St. Michael Catholic School. The program also provides parents and caregivers with additional information about injury prevention.

SCDSB Launches Year Two of “Dearness Conservation Program and Challenge”

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The Sudbury Catholic District School Board recently launched the 2007-2008 Dearness Conservation Program and Challenge. The School Conservation Challenge was created by the Sudbury Catholic District School Board to increase the participation in the Dearness Conservation (DC) initiative that was introduced into all of the Board’s schools in 2001. Since the inception of the DC program, the Board has been able to achieve substantial utility savings by educating teachers, students and staff and providing them with the necessary resources through this program.

The Dearness Conservation Program is geared toward both secondary school and elementary schools. The program consists of an in-school presentation/workshop and seeks to incorporate all students in the school in its conservation efforts.

The DC in-school program launch consisted of two components:

Part 1: A viewing of the widely acclaimed environmental movie trailer, An Inconvenient Truth followed by a “Changes” and a “Choices” presentation which focused on the choices that students have to make with respect to the environment. Discussion also centred around the key aspects of the Board’s Conservation Challenge.

Part 2: A conservation trade show was held on energy efficient technologies. Students learned about energy and water saving technologies, how to perform technical audits, and how to run campaigns to involve all students and staff in energy, water and waste reduction.

Workshops are being presented in all secondary and elementary schools over the next two weeks, and all SCDSB Dearness Schools, Classes and Clubs are invited to participate in the “Conservation Challenge” which will run from October 30, 2007 to May 1, 2008.

The winner of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s 2007-2008 School Conservation Challenge will be awarded a Grand Prize of $500.00 (toward an approved greening/grounds improvement project) and the right to display the “SCDSB School Conservation Challenge Champions” banner for a year.

For more information on the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s DC Program and Challenge please contact, Mark Gervais, Energy Coordinator at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.

Early Christmas Present for St. Mary Catholic School

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Christmas came early to St. Mary Catholic School in Capreol thanks to FNX Mining Company, Podolsky Mine. The school was in need of a freezer – not only for storage of First Aid ice packs but also for the storage of hot dogs,buns, and food for Parent Night Socials.

Thanks to Podolsky Mine Manager Frank Flynn and the Podolsky Staff, the students of St. Mary Catholic School now have enough room to store all they need in the beautiful upright freezer that FNX Mining purchased on the school’s behalf. St. Mary Catholic School would also like to thank Mr. Frank Mazzuca of Mazzuca Furniture and Appliance Company of Capreol for his support of the school.

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