Justine Bell, OCDSB trustee
I’d first like to thank educators, staff, community groups, committees, students and caregivers on the successful completion of another school year. At graduation ceremonies and school events this past year, I was repeatedly struck by the resilience of students and their support networks. I am grateful for our community and hope you are all enjoying summertime.
As for the board, we had our challenges this year and by the end of it we accomplished more than expected. It was a great honour to be selected by the newly elected board as vice-chair. What this role means in practice is that I chair many of the meetings and help to steer the agenda and governance of the board alongside Board Chair Lyra Evans.
Board accomplishments
So what did the new board accomplish?
We passed a very constrained budget of approximately $1.1 billion. With the provincial education funding, we were working with a budget shortfall of over $19.0 million and made every effort to align the budget with our strategic priorities. It was not easy, but I am confident that student centred decisions were made.
We hired a new Director of Education! Dr. Pino Buffone comes to us with 29 years of experience in education including provincial and public education leadership roles. Most importantly, he is kind and determined to support the OCDSB to be a dynamic, creative learning organization that fosters the achievement, well-being and dignity of every student.
We developed and approved the 2023-2027 Strategic Plan. This is the guiding document which directs the district for the next four years. Our strategic priorities are now centred on learning, well-being, and social responsibility.
We faced some contentious issues and continued to learn so that we can do better. Protesters repeatedly showed up expressing concern about how our school district recognizes and protects gender identity and gender expression rights in schools. Our commitment is firm: to promote inclusivity, and to combat racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and all forms of discrimination or hate. To ensure the safety of all participants at our public meetings, we had to take increased security measures to support public access.
Local school accomplishments
Our local schools have also accomplished a lot this year!
Our elementary schools saw significant increases to enrolment, and partnered with community organizations and small business. The Adult High School saw hundreds of students graduate, many of whom are new to Canada and eager to contribute to our community. Students from Urban Aboriginal had a very successful art exhibit of skateboards at the National Arts Centre and went on a canoe trip.
Lisgar’s arts programming continued to wow the community and Richard Phaff continued to provide an alternate program for students who work better in an independent learning environment. I am so proud of our community and what we’ve accomplished together for students.
As we begin to implement our new strategic plan in September of this year, we will continue to update and develop key polices and procedures as well as reviews of key programs, such as the review of the English (with core French) program. Our decisions this year will no doubt impact our neighbourhood schools.
As always, I will continue to provide updates via social media, The BUZZ, and at school council meetings. Please reach out anytime.