A Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. — Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at the Waterloo Region Catholic Education Centre.
General Information About WCDSB Board Meetings
Information About the Board of Trustees
(Note: Agenda files can be large. If you are experiencing issues downloading a file, right click on the link and choose “Save Target As…”.)
Grade 7-12 students and their parents/guardians are invited to attend “Explore Your Future” career expos being hosted today, May 17 (the Aud in Kitchener) from 5 – 8 PM. To avoid lines at the door, register in advance: http://bepwr.ca/eyf
On May 1-3, 2023, Skills Ontario hosted the annual Skills Ontario Competition at the Toronto Congress Centre.
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board was well represented over the three-day event through participation in the Elementary Young Women’s Conference (73 students), the Secondary Young Women’s Conference (36 students), the First Nations, Métis, & Inuit Student Conference (9 students) and the Career Exploration Showcase (39 students).
Forty students represented the Waterloo Catholic District School Board with tremendous efforts in the following contests — including 4 Gold Medal winners:
For the full results of the 2023 Skills Ontario Competition visit:
https://www.skillsontario.com/skills-ontario-competition#Results
Contest |
Student Name |
Student School |
| 2D Character Animation (Team of 2) | Ethan Austin and Virginia Khella | St. Mary’s HS |
| Architecture & Design | James Sayles | Monsignor Doyle CSS |
| Auto Service Technology | James Whyte | St. Benedict CSS |
| Auto Service Technology | Logan Bradbury | St. Benedict CSS |
| Baking | Jade Medeiros | Monsignor Doyle CSS |
| Cabinetmaking | Luke De Sousa | Monsignor Doyle CSS |
| Carpentry (Team of 2) | Tate Drinkwater and Lucas Sousa | Monsignor Doyle CSS |
| Carpentry (Team of 2) | David Chmiel and Martin Cekan | Monsignor Doyle CSS |
| Culinary Arts | Nathan Rivas Perez | St. Benedict CSS |
| Culinary Arts | Jordan Lacroix | St. Benedict CSS |
| Culinary Arts | Isaiah Salazar | St. Mary’s HS |
| Electrical Installations | Eddy Ferrede | St. David CSS |
| Electrical Installations | Grady Bunker | Resurrection CSS |
| Graphic design- Presentation | Sam Gonzalez | St. Mary’s HS |
| Hairstyling | Thalia Lopez | St. Mary’s HS |
| Hairstyling | Katelyn Deguire | St. Benedict CSS |
| Hairstyling | Phoenix Leung | St. Benedict CSS |
| Horticulture & Landscape (Team of 2) | Robby Hoch and Ethan Bauman | Resurrection CSS |
| Job Interview | Paige Spehar | St. Mary’s HS |
| Job Interview | David Barrios Rozo | St. Mary’s HS |
| Job Skill Demonstration | Callum Tiernan | St. Mary’s HS |
| Landscape Design | Reilynn Schutz | Resurrection CSS |
| Outdoor Powered Equipment | Abby Bilyea | St. Benedict CSS |
| Plumbing | Mason Garrett | St. David CSS |
| Precision Machining | Marcos Quintanilla | St. Mary’s HS |
| Prepared Speech | Grace Nakazi | Monsignor Doyle CSS |
| Prepared Speech | Allison – Hannah Berwick | Resurrection CSS |
| Restaurant Service | Vanessa Hlavac | St. Mary’s HS |
| Robotics (Team 4) | Michael Talbot, Jed Villapando, Luqman Khan, Rayon Fowler | St. Benedict CSS |
| Robotics (Team 4) | Caleb Chan, Ryan Guo, Philip Ozog, Benedict Buencamino | St. Mary’s HS |
Each year the Skills Ontario Competition medal is designed by a student through entry in the Pin & Medal Design Contest.
The 2023 medal design was created by WCDSB’s own Reese Lombardi, a Monsignor Doyle student who was awarded a $500 cash prize, and was presented with a framed version of the gold medal with her design at the Skills Ontario Competition Closing Ceremonies.
The 2023 Skills Canada National Competition will be held from May 24-27, 2023 at the RBC Convention Center in Winnipeg, MB.
Two Monsignor Doyle CSS students will be representing WCDSB on Team Ontario at #SCNC2023!
Join us in cheering on Luke De Sousa (below left) and Grace Nakazi (below right) as they compete against Canada’s best.
To view the live streamed opening ceremonies, select contests, and closing ceremonies, tune in to the Skills Canada Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@SkillsCompetencesCanada
Thank-you to all the WCDSB Teachers/Student Advisors who assisted in this year’s success: Christine Byrne, Leonard Bumbacco, Abel Chaves, Greg Cinti, Tara Clinton, Neil Calhoun, Joe Dietrich, Gabe Dutto, Ken Hodgins, Grace Lastella, Lynn McKellar, Julie McNab, Michelle Porowski, Michael Reitz, Paul Sanders, and Solange Saraiva for preparing our WCDSB Team for the 2023 Skills Ontario Competition.
An extended show of gratitude goes to our Community-Partner Advisors, who prepared competitors in: Electrical Installations (Peter Caesar, IBEW Local 804), Plumbing (Dan Twomey, UA Local 527), and Prepared Speech (Alyssa “Twist” Light).
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REGISTER for Vicki Olatundun Presentation: https://forms.office.com/r/sA3ipdtpSu
REGISTER for Virtual Paint Night: https://forms.office.com/r/1dFZJ6JMyY
Each year, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board proudly announces the recipients of three major awards: Chair’s Award, Community Partner Award and Distinguished Graduate Award.
This year’s recipients of those respective awards are Jan Littlejohn (retired Speech-Language Pathologist), the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation, and “St. Jerome’s Boy” Dave Kurek.
The Chair’s Award and Community Partner Award will be presented on Thursday, May 18, 2023, at the annual WCDSB Staff Recognition evening. Dave Kurek will receive the Distinguished Graduate Award at the Resurrection CSS graduation ceremony, per the tradition of the award.
Presented to a person or persons in the school system who has contributed significantly to Catholic Education. It is given annually in recognition of outstanding contributions made to the Catholic school system serving the students, staff, and greater community of Waterloo Region or to the betterment of Catholic Education in Ontario in general.
After 30 dedicated years of service at WCDSB, Jan Littlejohn retired from her role as a Speech-Language Pathologist in 2020. She was instrumental in establishing Speech-Language Pathology as a respected voice within the WCDSB’s multidisciplinary team structure. Above all, she kept the students at the heart of everything she did each day — advocating for those who are often the most vulnerable and supporting families along the way.
Presented annually in recognition of outstanding contributions made by a community partner or agency to the Catholic school system serving the students, staff, and greater community of Waterloo Region.
The Lyle S. Hallman Foundation is the 2022-23 recipient. The Foundation, founded by Lyle Hallman in 2003, continues his tradition of giving to areas that he believed were important. The foundation’s philosophy is to invest more in prevention and early intervention than in tertiary approaches. Support goes to projects working upstream, before problems occur, rather than downstream.
Presented to a graduate of more than 10 years from our school system who has demonstrated outstanding examples of the Ontario Catholic School Graduate Expectations. Awarded at the graduation exercises of the recipient’s Secondary School or other appropriate public venue.
Dave Kurek is a graduate of St. Paul CES and St. Jerome’s High School (1977). In fact, Dave refers to himself to this day as “A St. Jerome’s Boy” to anyone he meets.
Dave is a philanthropist in the truest sense of the word, always willing to support WCDSB schools — particularly those who have higher socio-economic needs. He shows his care through helping others, anonymously, be it for a whole class activity, whole school activity, or even helping individual families (including personally help plan activities and events).
He never wants to be named for his donations; just to be recognized as a “St. Jerome’s Boy”.
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May 1, 2023
During the May 1, 2023, Special Board of Trustees meeting, a motion was brought forward and approved by The Waterloo Catholic District School Board directing the Director of Education to appoint an outside consultant to investigate an allegation of a breach in the Board’s Code of Conduct and to bring forward a formal report of the investigation’s findings to the Board.
This investigation will be part of the review that the Board began immediately upon learning of an alleged Code of Conduct breach and is currently conducting.
The Board will have no further comment until the consultant’s report is presented and the review is complete.
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board prides itself on being the Heart of the Community, providing Success for Each and A Place for All. With this Vision, we have developed our new WCDSB Multi-Year Strategic Plan (2022-2025) (MYSP). This short video from Director Tyrone Dowling summarizes the process, content and goals for our new Strategic Plan. This plan was approved by the Board of Trustees in December 2022.
At this time, we are gathering feedback to assist with our ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the current MYSP. We are inviting all staff, parents/guardians, and community members to provide feedback on our new MYSP plan (one per family/staff). Your input is valued and appreciated.
The survey will take less than 8 minutes to complete and will be available until May 23rd @ 8am.
Survey link: https://wcdsb.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_didAwydaettroFw
Participation in this survey is anonymous and voluntary. You will not be asked to provide your name, contact information, or any information that can identify you. As well, no identifying information (e.g., email address, IP address) will be automatically collected through the online tool.
If you have any questions about this collection or need assistance completing it, please contact the Research Department at research@wcdsb.ca
Buses will not run as scheduled on Monday, May 1. An agreement has not been accepted by members of Unifor, Local 4304, representing Grand River Transit, busPLUS, MobilityPLUS operators, reservationists, fleet mechanics and service attendants.
ION trains will continue to operate. Click here to view the schedule.
As a result of the strike, Customer Service Centres are closed.
Transit customers are encouraged to find alternative transportation options and make careful decisions around fare purchasing.
Updates, when available, will be provided on grt.ca, Facebook and Twitter , as well as on the Region of Waterloo’s website, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Customers can also get more information by calling 519-585-7555 or for deaf and hard of hearing customers (TTY) at 519-575-4608. For a full list of impacts, visit grt.ca/updates.
The next meeting of the Board of Trustees (Committee of the Whole Board) is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. — Monday, May 1, 2023 at the Waterloo Region Catholic Education Centre.
General Information About WCDSB Board Meetings
Information About the Board of Trustees
(Note: Agenda files can be large. If you are experiencing issues downloading a file, right click on the link and choose “Save Target As…”.)
April 26, 2023
Waterloo Catholic District School Board Trustees represent citizens of Waterloo Region. The Board remains committed to providing a quality, inclusive, faith-based education with a goal of providing all students the opportunity to succeed and belong.
The Board of Trustees of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board does not support statements made by Trustee Wendy Ashby in social media posts.
The Board is aware of concerns raised by community members regarding the contents of the posts by Trustee Ashby and is doing its due diligence in ensuring that those concerns are heard. Whenever there are allegations of a breach in the code of conduct, the Board follows up with a review into those allegations.
At a Board meeting held on Monday April 24, 2023, a number of individuals were disruptive, causing the meeting to be briefly recessed. Waterloo Regional Police were called to ensure the safety of all those in attendance. No arrests were made, and no further police action was required. The meeting resumed and Trustees received the presentation from the meeting’s sole registered delegation.
The Board will continue to be accountable and accessible to our community, but we will not tolerate hate of any kind or disrespectful behaviour that is disruptive to public meetings.
There will be no further comment from the Board of Trustees at this time. Please refer to a separate statement issued by Trustee Ashby.
I apologize for my tweets that offended people and I apologize to my board colleagues for how this has impacted them.
Conversations about inequality are often uncomfortable. As a Métis woman and in my professional role, I encounter these discussions regularly and part of these discussions is to challenge our existing systems. A great deal of my education and advocacy work is around understanding and furthering diversity, equity and inclusion.
I have decided to remove my Twitter account to ensure that my comments and advocacy will not be taken out of context, in the future.
I remain dedicated to continuing to work with my colleagues and our community to support all students.
