From Your Catholic School Trustees Sharon Hobin and Esther O’Toole
It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of 2013. We have seen tremendous
accomplishments to date and have met many of our goals in our Dufferin-Peel Strategic Plan which
is routed in everything we do including our Catholic Board Learning Plan. We are very proud of
the achievements and activities of this Board on behalf of Catholic education and our community
despite financial challenges. As our Director John Kostoff stated in his yearly report “I am
extremely proud of the work that has taken place this past year in our schools, school councils,
committees, classrooms, shop floors, families of schools, superintendent meetings, department
meetings, in-services, offices and in a myriad of other venues.”
The new Dufferin-Peel website has been developed with significant consultation, focus groups,
and user testing. The site is designed to be faster and more effective for parents, students, and
other stakeholders to access the information they need. The content has been substantially
updated. Along with the major work undertaken on the main Board website, we have completed
an upgrade of all school websites – including updated navigation and page templates that
coordinate with the new Board website. Take a look and we think you will be very pleased!
This is Year 4 in the implementation of Full Day Learning in 242 classes and 6 half day classes.
This will bring our Board to approximately 71% of schools with Full Day Kindergarten. We are
working towards the completion of Year 5. In September 2014 all schools will have Full Day
Kindergarten!
We are delighted to share with you that Dufferin-Peel has received recognition from the Institute
of Public Administration. This award aims to recognize and encourage innovation throughout all
public organizations and across all orders of government. “The purpose of the award is to
recognize and publicly celebrate success stories in the public sector, emulating and enhancing the
image and thereby fostering innovation”. The award is in recognition of practices and effort
related to the development of our High Skills Major programs in our secondary schools. This is
an international award, and one that our staff should be very proud of. The information for this
award came from the Ministry of Education and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada
- The 2013 Innovative Management Gold Award.
As we move into the Advent Season and then on to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
we would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our teachers, administrators, school
councils and volunteers who will present school concerts, Advent Masses, classroom activities,
support for St. Vincent de Paul and our local food banks as well as many other social justice
initiatives. We are truly blessed to have our wonderful parish priests who will visit our schools
and offer Advent Masses. This is truly the face of Catholic education at its best.
We wish you a very blessed and holy Christmas and all the very best in 2014. God bless.