Sister Pat Carter (pictured left) , Vocation Director with The Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie, visited Grade 6 classes across the North earlier in 2003 and challenged the students to become people of prayer and service. Sister Pat announced an essay and poster contest that invited students to draw upon their religious education program entitled “You Shall Be My Witness”, and reflect on who has been a good witness of the Gospel message to them. They were asked to write their reflections in an essay or create a poster to give specific examples of how this person was an effective witness of Jesus’ love. The winner for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board was Alex McGilles from St. Mark School in Markstay. Alex wrote about her special relationship with her grandmother Aileen Large, and her grandmother’s special relationship with God. Aileen Large is a teacher with the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. Congratulations Alex and Aileen!

My Witness to God Have you ever felt like someone you know is an angel that fell from heaven? Well I do and it’s my Nana Aileen. She is my witness to God. My Nana is my witness to God because she is a very special person. She goes to church every Saturday and if she misses then she goes on Sunday or Tuesday. My Nana always volunteers to do stuff for our church, like when the Deacon asks our community to read for our church my Nana always says “yes”. She willingly offers to make sandwiches whenever there is a funeral. She also makes sure that there are severs at our church to help the priest. She always asks me to participate and because of her influence I serve at funerals and I help with children’s liturgy. My Nana also takes care of my family and me. When my best friend moved to Virginia my Nana was there to help me push back my tears. She also helped my Dada (Grandpa) when he was sick with cancer. She stayed with him every second of the day until he passed away. Also, just this summer she came to my house to see my Papa when he was sick with cancer and he also died. She comforted me by ensuring me that Papa was at peace with God. My nana goes to school and teaches kids about God. She teaches five times a week for one hundred ninety days and she never complains around the children. At school three times a day she prays. She prays for kids and their families who do not have a house to go to. She also prays for the sick and for the deceased. She even prays for my family that we may live for eternal life in heaven. I feel that I will always be able to look towards my Nana for spiritual guidance and I pray to God to look after her. Alex McGilles St. Mark School, Markstay

Students from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board travelled to Kitchener-Waterloo to represent the Board in the Skills Canada National Competition recently. The event is designed to give students from across Canada the opportunity to represent their provinces in an annual competition which celebrates trades and technology. Over 40 contests were held at the Canadian Skills competition involving some 400 students from both the secondary and post-secondary apprenticeship programs. Representing the SCDSB Team are (L-R); Mr. Lynden Baxter, Matt Rocca, Andrew Kostvik, Amy Richard, Tabitha Higgins, and Ms. Allison Simpson. (Missing from the photo is Chris Gunville).

Mat Rocca and Andrew Kostvik from St. Benedict Catholic Secondary competed in the Web Page Design competition while Amy Richard and Tabitha Higgins, also from St. Benedict competed in TV-Video production.. Chris Gunville from St. Charles College won a Bronze Medal in the Prepared speech competition. The Canadian Skills Competition is the first stage of building Team Canada for the World Skills Competition which is hosted every two years.

The bargaining committee for the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association representing Occasional Teachers, Sudbury Unit, (OECTA Occasional) and the Sudbury Catholic District School Board have reached a tentative agreement.

On Monday, June 16th , the union membership will vote on the tentative settlement and on Tuesday, June 17th, the Board’s salary negotiation committee will bring the tentative proposal forward to the Trustees with a recommendation for approval.

Paula Peroni, Board Trustee and Chair of the Board’s negotiation committee and Linda Kingerski, President of the OECTA Occasional Unit, Sudbury, 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, “The goodwill shown by both parties to reach an agreement during these negotiations will ultimately transfer itself to the classroom.”

The Sudbury Elementary Unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) and the Sudbury Catholic District School Board have ratified a new one-year collective agreement effective September 2003 to August 2004. The new agreement includes a benefit package for retirees consisting of dental coverage, extended health care and group life while the monetary portion of the contract will see the teachers’ salaries increase by 1.5 percent effective September 2003, an additional 1 percent in February 2004 and 1 percent on June 1 of 2004.

Ray Vincent, Chair of the Sudbury Catholic School Board is pleased with the fact that the contract has been ratified by the membership, stating that, “ the Board is very happy that we had an agreement reached on friendly terms. Our two most important assets are our students and the teachers we hire to educate them. The ratification of this contract underscores the common goal of the Board and the Elementary Teachers’ Local Bargaining Unit to provide the best possible education to the Catholic children of this community.”

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board sponsored a workshop recently for teachers, educational support staff, and parents on the educational implications for children who have received cochlear implants. A cochlear implant is an electronic device that functions as a sensory aid, converting mechanical sound energy into a coded electric stimulus that directly stimulates the remaining auditory nerves. Part of the cochlear implant is surgically implanted into the cochlea which is in the inner ear, and the remaining part is worn externally.

The cochlear implant provides partial hearing: it does not return the hearing to normal or “cure” deafness. It is important for health care professionals to determine if the person would benefit from a properly fitted hearing aid or from a cochlear implant. There are criteria that must be met prior to considering this kind of surgery for a deaf person.

The workshop which was held on May 16th at the Education Centre was well attended by educational staff and community partners. The presenters included: Mary Lynn Fenesse, Audiologist with the Cochlear Implant Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Sharon McLaughlin, Educational Resource Teacher with the E.C. Drury Provincial School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Joanne Vincent and Darlene Laferriere, Speech Language Pathologists who have developed expertise in auditory-verbal therapy, and Linda Cecutti, Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing with the Rainbow District School Board.

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.

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