Toronto Catholic District School Board

History

Prior to 1998, the Metropolitan Separate School Board was the governing body of all publicly funded Roman Catholic schools in Toronto. In 1998, the board was reorganised, resulting in the separation of English and French language schools, the latter of which are now part of the Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud. The resulting board was named the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

Organization

The Toronto Catholic District School Board mission statement relies on as "an inclusive learning community uniting home, parish and school and rooted in the love of Christ" that "educates students to grow in grace and knowledge and to lead lives of faith, hope and charity." The vision encourages learning communities of the Board to "transform the world through witness, faith, innovation and action."

The school board is governed by 12 elected trustees who serve for a four-year term. Each year one secondary school student is selected to serve on the board as a student trustee (who is not entitled to vote). The chair of the board, the vice-chair, and the honorary treasurer are elected at the inaugural meeting of the board, and serve for one year. As of August 2013, Ann Andrachuk serves as chair, and Sal Piccininni serves as vice-chair. Trustees are paid $18,500 a year in salary, and can claim up to $18,000 for expenses. Prior to the 1998 separation of French-language schools, the Metropolitan Separate School Board had three French language seats. The policies of the Board are administered by the Director of Education and designates.

There are more than 85,864 students serving over 200 Catholic schools, and represent close to 475,000 Catholic school supporters in all of Toronto. The TCDSB also has staff consisting of 6,000 teachers, 2,800 support staff, 360 principals and vice principals, and 200 administrators.

In addition, the Board operates standing three committees: the Student Achievement and Well Being, Catholic Education and Human Resources, Corporate Affairs, Strategic Planning and Property, & Governance Framework.

Chairs of the Board

Italics indicate the trustee remains active.

Current

The current director of education is Angela Gauthier who was appointed on August 1, 2013. She served as interim director in 2011.

Past directors

School Building Architecture

Like the TDSB-built schools, 70% of the TCDSB stock of school buildings outside of the old City of Toronto were built after World War II and during the 1950s. These are typically Mid-Century modern in style with two to three storey brick facade and large double hung windows albeit from the cross attached. Some are built in Tudor Gothic style ones in the late 1800s.

School bus transportation

The following service providers have been contracted by the school board:

Uniforms

Uniforms are mandatory for students at the secondary level and elementary starting in the fall 2011. In 2010 some elementary schools started implementing use of uniforms.

In 1988, the MSSB ruled that public separate high schools are required to wear uniforms. At the time, all of the high schools in Scarborough except for Blessed Cardinal Newman had uniforms. Some trustees anticipated protests from parents and students from Newman.

As of 2017, all TCDSB elementary students must wear a uniform of a white or navy blur top, and navy blue bottoms. This is enforced in special programs such as the gifted program and ME.

Enrolment of non-Catholics

While Catholic high schools are funded by the provincial government, making them open to any students who wish to attend, elementary schools do not have to enroll non-Catholic students. Many argue that the practice of fully funding separate schools exclusively for the Catholic faith is discriminatory to other religions (the United Nations has twice chastised the province for this policy). Supporters of the current Catholic education system point out that it has existed, in one form or another, since Confederation, and that the Constitution Act, 1867 enshrines the right to government-funded religious education to all Catholics. The opposition, however, argues that this is an appeal to tradition, and point to other provinces in Canada which amended the constitution to abolish Catholic school funding. It is up to the school principal whether or not non-Catholics are enrolled.

Government funding

Recently, the issue of government funding for religious schools has become a major political issue (see Ontario general election, 2007), with PC Party Leader John Tory supporting an extension of funding to all religious schools, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals and Howard Hampton's NDP supporting the status quo, and Frank de Jong's Greens alone calling for elimination of public funding for all religious schools (including Catholic Schools).

Trustee spending scandal

The board was embroiled in controversy in May 2008 when a report commissioned by the provincial government uncovered spending abuses by certain trustees, including charges for meals, promotional materials, and prohibited benefits. Provincial supervisor Norbert Hartmann was appointed to oversee administration of the board as a result.

Logo

The official symbol of the Toronto Catholic District School Board was designed in 1969 by the internationally recognized design artist, Allan Fleming, who designed the Canadian National logo. It combines the cross, the anchor, and the heart representing the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. It is based on the cross and anchor symbol used by the early Christians in the catacombs, the added heart representing humanity.