Sudbury Catholic District School Board

Category: Staff

New Director Hired for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board

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The Sudbury Catholic Trustees are pleased to announce that they have selected a new Director for their Board. Mrs. Joanne Bénard is the successful Directorial candidate, and joins the Board from her current position as Superintendent of Education with the Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board in North Bay, where she has held her position since 2001. Joanne graduated from the University of Ottawa and Nippissing University and holds a Masters of Education degree. Effective July 1, Joanne will be replacing Catherine McCullough who has served as Director for seven years.

“Throughout her career, Joanne has consistently demonstrated her very strong leadership skills, and the fact that she leads with integrity and compassion,” says Jody Cameron, Chair of the Board. “Joanne’s outstanding accomplishments, and connection to her board, community and province makes it quite evident that she will be a huge asset to our already strong senior administration team, as well as the entire Sudbury Catholic community.”

Under her direction as Superintendent, Joanne has led several programs including Kindergarten to Grade 12 supervision, French as a Second Language, Early Learning, Board Leadership and Development Strategies, Parent Engagement, and Equality and Inclusive Education.

In her community, Joanne has been involved with numerous organizations including serving on the Board of Directors for the North Bay and District Multicultural Centre, is Chair of the Nippssing, Parry Sound Student Support Leadership Committee and is Chair of the Crown Ward Championship Team of Parry Sound and Muskoka. Provincially, Joanne serves as the Chair of the Ontario Institute for Educational Leadership (her second term) and also is a part of both the Principal Workload Study Group as well as the French as a Second Language Provincial Working Group.

“I am truly honoured and privileged to have the opportunity of working with the Board of Trustees in serving the students, parents and staff of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.” said Joanne Bénard. “I look forward to building upon the Board’s solid foundation in building schools focused on academic excellence and student success.”

Sandra Herbst ‘Sits Beside’ SCDSB Leaders in Their Learning

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On October 2, 3 and 4th 2013, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board hosted learning sessions with Sandra Herbst, co-author of several Assessment for Learning books, a noted system leader, speaker, coach, consultant, and educator with extensive experience in assessment, leadership, and adult learning.

With her warm demure and her real life anecdotes, Herbst shared practical strategies that can be used from the classroom to the boardroom that encourage self-assessment, self-regulation and improved achievement for ALL learners in the board. Over 75 members of the SCDSB community participated in the learning and had nothing but positive feedback to share.

Testimonials

“I really feel that this was one of the best presentations I have attended in my fourteen years with this board. I walked away energized, motivated and with many interesting ideas and strategies to ponder. Ms Herbst was a fantastic facilitator and her belief in educating the whole child connected so well with our catholic graduate expectations.”

“I have been reflecting more on my practice and the way in which I can influence and promote progress in my classroom and my school.”

“What I learned was I need to make myself more vulnerable… in the classroom… just like the teachers who opened their classrooms in the videos we watched.”

“It allowed me to clearly connect with concepts… such as… the difference between assessment and evaluation. It helped me spark new ideas for my teaching practice.”

The learning sessions supported our BIPSA priorities in Assessment for Learning and in technology. If you are interested in reading more on Sandra’s presentation, talk to your respective school leaders to obtain valuable handouts that were shared.

Students and Parents say Thank You to St. Bernadette Staff

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In appreciation of all the staff at St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School, every single staff member was presented with a plaque of appreciation from the students and parents of the school community during Catholic Education week. Each teacher, the Principal and the school secretary, received their own personal plaque that described exactly why they were appreciated and cherished by the students of St. Bernadette and all of the comments and illustrations on the individual plaques were then collected and placed on a large plaque for the school to proudly display. The Catholic School Council members had secretly collected comments and artwork from the students describing why they loved their teachers.

“Bullying is not Cool – Keep it out of our School!”

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Three members of Canadian Half-Pints basketball team visited Immaculate Conception school recently. They spoke to the students and staff about how they were bullied in elementary and secondary schools. Farmer Pete shared with the students that he was teased and called names because of his size and appearance. He explained that he may look different, but he can still do everything any other person can do, including playing basketball. The Canadian Half Pint team spoke about the harmful effects of bullying to students and staff. After the presentation, the Canadian Half Pints played a half court basketball game againstt students and staff. Staff and students cheered on the Canadian Half Pints, and they couldn’t believe how many baskets they made. Principal Louisa Bianchin thanked the Canadian Half Pints for coming to the school and teaching them how “we all belong, we are all brothers and sisters, and together we are better.”

St. David School Successfully Collaborates as a Interdisciplinary Team

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St. David School staff collaboratively works as a team with support from school board personal, Jennifer Connelly, assistive technology teacher, on using assistive technology to support student achievement. The school teachers, principal, educational assistants, secretary and child and youth worker all attended an in-service on a new exciting computer program called Word Q. Word Q helps students develop confidence, improve productivity, increase self-esteem and foster a spirit of inclusion. The program assists by predicting words and providing speech feedback that allows students to hear their mistakes. “I appreciate its simplicity”, said Nancy Costanzi, resource teacher at St. David Catholic School and new WordQ expert.

Sudbury Catholic Partners with Laurentian University to “Dig Into the Arts”

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On Friday, November 25 both teachers, and Early Childhood Educators from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program (ELKP) participated in a day of experiential learning at Laurentian University. Guided by professors Dave and Jan Buley, the educators discovered interesting ways to integrate the arts in everyday teaching and learning. With the help of Marc Poirier from Pearson Education, the educators experienced a digital learning classroom where they explored a variety of opportunities for embedding technology in their practice.

From Project to Plan… Three Immaculate Students Are Making a Difference

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Abigail Morgan, Sydney Hall and Alexa Connors are inspired – inspired to make a difference on the other side of the world.
The three grade 6 Immaculate Conception students, along with the rest of their class, were given a project. As part of their religion and French studies, the class was assigned a project about someone who has made a difference in the world. The three girls chose Ryan Hreljac. Ryan Hreljac, when he was just six years old, decided to raise money to buy and build wells in countries where there is little access to clean water. By 2001, Ryan had established the Ryan’s Well Foundation which raises money for wells to be built in areas affected by the global water crisis. Through learning about Ryan and his organization, Abigail, Sydney and Alexa knew that just doing a project wasn’t enough. They wanted to start their own fundraising efforts to support this foundation. After getting the support from their teacher, Chantal Rancourt, they brainstormed ideas on how best to approach their project. Ms. Raincourt suggested they put together a video presentation to share with their class and their school, as well as invite other schools at the Sudbury Catholic Board to get involved. The students decided to present their video, as well as hold a Water Wednesday on December 14. The girls’ class helped out by creating posters to put all over the walls throughout the school reminding everybody as the day drew closer, and the whole school was encouraged to bring in their loose change, loonies and toonies. At the end of the day, the girls managed to raise over $210 in their first day of fundraising. But it doesn’t end there. Many other activities have been planned including a walkathon and a jumpathon, scheduled for the spring as they are determined to reach their goal of $2000 – which is the cost of one well. “We are asking everybody to do extra chores, save their allowances, anything to help out” quipped all three girls when asked about what their next immediate plans were. “We started this during the month of November, and November’s virtue of the month is Justice, so we thought it was really important that we did something that helped with justice in the world.”
Chantal Rancourt, knew that they were serious about this right at the beginning of the project. “These girls approached me and began right away to discuss a plan – I knew that this was something that they were extremely passionate about.” Rancourt stated. “ I am so proud of their efforts, and their encouragement of others to support this cause. Their actions are truly reflective of the virtue of Justice, and they are now inspiring others to make a difference too. We are all looking forward to seeing what their next steps will be!”

The Spirit of Christmas Alive at St. Anne

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By 6:30 a.m. on December 2, St. Anne Catholic Elementary was a-buzz with excitement. The arrival of Q92’s Terry and Mel and the TD Toy Caravan had staff and students prepping the school’s foyer and library with decorations, breakfast items, and most importantly, Christmas cheer.
Guy Mathieu, Principal of St. Anne said the school was approached to be a possible location for the Q92 Toy Caravan live on location spot and without hesitation, accepted immediately. “We started sending out flyers to the community and encouraging as many people as possible to come out and donate this morning,” Mathieu stated. “This event is one that really encourages people to dig deep inside themselves and truly give from the heart. So many of the children in the Greater Sudbury community are in need of our support – we are just glad to be a part of something that helps us see what’s right with the world.”
From 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. both Terry and Mel encouraged listeners to come in and donate either a new toy or a monetary donation and people came out in droves. Students, both present and past, as well as parents, grandparents, friends and community members came through the school’s main doors and brought with them hundreds of toys as well as over $600 in money donations. Mathieu was overwhelmed by the support. “What has happened here this morning has really set the stage for us all to get in to the holiday spirit. That’s what I love about this community – everybody comes together and shows us that the true spirit of Christmas is alive and well at St. Anne’s – I couldn’t be more proud. Kids helping kids. Children giving to other children. I don’t know that I can think of anything that is more powerful than that.”
As well as getting to meet Terry and Mel – the students and staff got to see how the show worked and teacher Alice Desormeaux and custodian Dan Sauve even got to take part in the “Battle of the Sexes” of which Sauve came out as champion. By 9:15, the foyer was stuffed with hundreds of toys and the students were amazed at the piles of donations in front of them. Some teachers even walked their classes down to see just how generous the community and their school had been. “I am just so proud of our school-students, staff and parents alike,” Mathieu stated. “The Christmas spirit is alive and well at St. Anne!”

Roaring Runners Do the Santa Shuffle

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St. David Catholic School participated in the 19th annual Santa Shuffle / Elf Walk at Science North. The school raised over $400.00 for the Salvation Army to help to build a playground and community garden for Cedar Place the Salvation Army’s Women & Children’s shelter. The students, teachers, parents, secretary and principal ran, walked and cheered their way through the 1 km race. The students were proud be be able to donate to such a worthy cause while demonstrating their running abilities. They have been in training since early September and have seen improvements in their endurance, energy levels and overall feelings of improved confidence.

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