TBCDSB Annual Director's Report 2020-2021

DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT 2020 - 2021

Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board

DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

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TBCDSB 2020-2021

TA B L E O F C O NT E NT S

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Director’s Message Our Values Our Vision 8 10 16 20 22

Growing in Faith Inspiring Achievement Supporting Collaboration Enduring Sustainability Connection Communities

Ensuring Equity Enrolment Data

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Operating Budget

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Our Board at a Glance/Senior Administration

Board of Trustees

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MISSION STATEMENT The Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board is committed to providing quality education, which combines academic excellence with a concern for the spiritual, moral, social, emotional, cultural and physical growth of the student. This education is provided in a Christ-centered environment where Catholic faith and life are integrated into the total curriculum and school day. Through the ministry of teaching, the Board fulfills its mandate in partnership with the home, the Church and the Ministry of Education.

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

DIRECTOR’S

message

“Although 2020 - 2021 was not the journey we anticipated or expected, it’s one we navagated and conquered, together.”

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TBCDSB 2020-2021

Our journey over the 2020-21 school year has been a winding path filled with successes and accomplishments. Like any journey, challenges have arisen, which at times have felt daunting and have also brought sadness.

Tom Mustapic, our Business Consultant and Loretta Fonso, our Board Vice-Chair and retired TBCDSB teacher, fell asleep in the arms of Jesus during the course of the year. Tom and Loretta’s passing has left a void within our Board community and our city. I will forever cherish Tom’s wisdom, counsel and friendship and I will always hold Loretta’s charisma, wit and joy close to my heart. This Director’s Report is dedicated to their memory and their work within our Board. Words can never truly express how deeply these two people impacted my own life and the lives of their colleagues, our students and alumni.

Although 2020 - 2021 was not the journey we anticipated or expected, it’s one we navigated and conquered, together. We have remained positive, compassionate and steadfast and it’s because of our students, our staff and our families that we continue to persevere.

God Bless,

Pino Tassone Director of Education

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

Growing in Faith Thunder Bay Catholic strives to create a community filled with compassion, inclusion, sharing and forgiveness in accordance with the teachings of Jesus. We continue to strengthen and sustain a relationship between school and church, through maintaining a positive, spiritual and emotional foundation of support for both students and staff.

Inspiring Achievement Providing and creating an enjoyable environment filled with culture, faith, and deep learning is key for success. Together, we can inspire success and encourage collaboration.

Supporting Collaboration Through various initiatives within our Board, educators have become even more inspired to collaborate with one another, teaming up to form best practices – creating consistency and improving concepts and lessons. Through knowledge and cultural practice sharing, and deep learning, we have successfully been able to work with students, parents and caregivers – creating a collective communicative relationship on all levels.

Ensuring Sustainability Catholic Education is a vital piece of who we are as a Board.

We illustrate the importance of Catholic Education through our social justice initiatives and good works. We create internal leaders from a young age through our advanced leadership and mentorship programs, and cultivate environmental stewardship and ecological appreciation within our schools.

Connecting Communities Together, we form amazing partnerships between home, school and community organizations. It is important and essential to emphasize that everyone is welcome, and ensure our parents and guardians are well -informed and involved. Partnerships, especially cultural ones, are fundamental to our success. We are blessed to have a partnership with Fort William First Nation and various organizations, media outlets and community groups throughout our city.

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

faith moves mountains GROWING IN

Faith

ENHANCING SPIRITUALITY IN OUR LIVES

On our first day back together after a long time of distance, we announced our spiritual theme for the year: “We are people of faith”’ Staff participated in a virtual commissioning service where this theme was highlighted. Our Faith Development Day was postponed until February in the hope that we could be together. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the day had to run entirely virtually. Despite this, it was an inspiring and deeply spiritual event for our staff and we experienced the healing power of our faith. David Wells, our guest speaker, spoke about going after the virtues and gave specific examples of how faith, hope, and love can make us well. Catholic Education Week continued to play a major role in our growth, though it looked a lot different again this year. Catholic Education Week was bursting with faith-driven and inspiring events for everyone. This year, we continued to be creative in finding ways to include everyone and bring everyone together virtually. The theme “Nurturing Hope”.

Throughout the week, students, staff, and their families came together virtually to participate in activities for all ages which included prayer, reflection, and other suggested activities to do at home. We launched a social media campaign and asked people to reflect and share a response to two questions: What does Catholic education mean to you? or how do you nurture hope for the future? People were invited to share their thoughts and pictures using hashtags: #mytbayCatholic #Nurturing Hope #CEW2021. We created a digital library and David Bouchard did a virtual read-aloud of his book: “We Learn from the Sun”. Retreat kits were created for teachers to use with their classes in grades 7 & 8 and 9-12. The theme focused on the importance of supporting small-scale farming and included interactive activities and a virtual guest speaker from Development & Peace.

Social media kits were created for principals which included a message for each day of the week about the sub-theme and suggested activities for families. We launched our “Ask a Priest” video series where we saw a local priest answer questions from some of our students. We closed out the week with a board-wide virtual prayer service. We did a lot in one week towards strengthening home, school, and parish connections. It was an incredible celebration of our faith and the gift of Catholic education.

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Teaching Faith in our Schools As part of our Growing in Faith evolution, we have encouraged various teachers to volunteer as “Faith Ambassadors”. These teachers attend workshops and champion new faith-based initiatives within their school communities. In light of our spiritual theme, our Faith Ambassadors participated in professional development about what it means to be a faith leader. Our System Faith Leader continues to visit schools when possible. Later in the year, we found creative ways to support staff and students with virtual liturgies in schools. Our Religious Education Consultant continues to update and maintain a Religious Education website for Faith Ambassadors and staff within our system. The site includes resources for curricular support as well as resources to support faith activities, prayer services, school masses and news about events. Our Board has been investing annually in a new program produced by Pearson and the Canadian Catholic Bishops. The Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ Program was created to support teachers in delivering a comprehensive program that directly meets the expectations in the Ontario Religious Education Curriculum, grades 1 through 8. The digital resources within this program were an invaluable resource for teachers when we had to pivot to At Home Learning. An implementation kit was created for Fully Alive and shared with principals and educators to assist with the roll out of the new curriculum changes and exemption policy and to provide some guidelines for teachers teaching the content online. We started a pilot project for our monthly virtues which has two goals: to introduce priests and deacons of our diocese to students in schools and to improve virtue education in grades 7 through 12. A video message and a teacher resource with prompts for discussion and ideas for taking the learning further are shared with schools each month. We launched a new program for Kindergarten. Teachers were introduced to the new document produced by ICE and Sowing Seeds was purchased as the primary educator resource.

A cannon of storybooks was purchased to support more in depth inquiries into the themes. Long range plans were created as a guide for learning throughout the school and liturgical year and other supplemental resources were shared on our internal website.

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Mental Health Our Catholic Faith continues to be at the centre of our efforts to support the social, emotional and spiritual lives of our students. We continue to implement resources and training from School Mental Health Ontario, including the Faith and Wellness Everyday Classroom Resource, for elementary teachers (K-8). Faith and Wellness was developed with the support of OECTA and informed by Catholic educators. We also support the use of SMHO’s Leading Mentally Healthy Schools by our administrators, which helps guide the response to mental health needs in our schools, design whole-school wellness strategies, and implement health promotion programming at the classroom and school levels.

Supporting LGBTQ Student Inclusion Our Catholic school communities strive to be places of compassion, inclusion and social justice for LGBTQ+ students, staff and families. Both high schools continue to have and support active and growing Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) clubs. This past year, our senior elementary school students started organizing GSA clubs. This reflects a growing awareness and openness about diversity among our students at younger grade levels and growing acceptance, understanding and responsiveness at the staff level. In our K-6 schools, the board is supporting requests from staff for more awareness level training on behalf of gender diverse students, staff and families. The goal is to champion enquiry, social justice and human dignity for all through safe, accepting and life affirming learning environments.

INSPIRING

achievement

PROVIDING LEARNING AND WORKING S PA C E S T H A T E N H A N C E P R O D U C T I V I T Y

In our continued work with New Pedagogies for Deep Learning, we are striving to inspire and develop competencies which will engage and enrich student thinking and learning. We continued to work in Families of Schools to examine Pedagogical Practices, Learning Partnerships, Learning Environments, and meaningful ways to Leverage Digital while being in remote learning environments. We maintained an emphasis on working on the 6 Global Competencies, (Collaboration, Citizenship, Character, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication) which align with Learning Skills, Catholic Graduate Expectations, and the Anishnawbe Seven Grandfather Teachings. Unfortunately, while we were unable to maximize Learning Design Cycles last year in a systematic way during the COVID-19 pandemic and moderate Learning Designs we are continuing to grow capacity around collaborative learning cycles and using the Learning Design Template, backward design model as a method of best practice to meet the needs of all learners. Long Term Plans were developed for Literacy, Mathematics, Religious Education, Indigenous Education, FSL, Special Education, Deep Learning as a means to be intentional in moving forward to support educators to best meet the needs of our students.

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Teachers During the 2020-2021 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the complement of Resource teachers was reduced significantly supporting our schools. However, with the Resource teachers, Consultants and Coordinators available, they were integral in supporting our Learn @ Home school with co-planning and modeling ways to best leverage digital resources and student thinking in an online setting. The Math Resource Teacher was able to coteach and create virtual learning opportunities to support student thinking. After school opportunities were provided to support how to use digital tools to support student thinking as well as opportunities to explore curriculum content. Our French Resource teacher-supported new hires to French Immersion with co-teaching experiences online. As well as, create a DELF Google Classroom (suite of tools) to support our Gr. 12 students in challenging the DELF exam. Unfortunately, this opportunity did not come to fruition at the end of the school year due to school closures.

Learners Supporting student achievement is fundamental and assistance from school teams along with our Resource teachers is key.

Resource Teachers supported our learners in an online learning environment with small group instruction and assessments in order to support student learning. There were opportunities to build community within virtual classrooms with virtual learning partnerships such as with the Thunder Bay Symphony, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Skills Compétences Ontario to name a few.

Administrators Board Administration is fully involved in student achievement goals and ideals. Mathematics and Deep Learning, in particular, have been our main achievement goals at the Board and at the school level.

Superintendents, Principals, and Vice-Principals have been fully involved in various aspects in methods of attaining success. During our monthly Principal Meetings, Michael Fullam’s book Nuance was read, discussed, and reflected upon investigating effective school leadership practices, along with webinars and papers from New Pedagogies for Deep Learning.

Student Support Persons (SSP) & Early Childhood Educators (ECE) SSPs and ECEs play a critical role in assisting our learners to flourish and grow within our Board. Professional Development sessions are offered to assist in their roles, with topics including building resiliency, technology, math interventions for struggling students, FASD, and Zones of Regulation. Our Board BMST Trainers were able to pivot quickly during the school closure and offered BMST training virtually when necessary.

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Enhancing our Mental Health Support Our Board continues to prioritize mental health support, resources and services for students through the work of our board Mental Health Leader in collaboration with community partners (CCTB, LHINS, Health Unit) and provincially, School Mental Health Ontario (SMHO). We offer brief mental health counselling and support services for all K-12 schools, crisis response services to schools during the school day, coordinated mental health fan-out support to schools following tragic events, student mental health promotion and prevention programming, and staff professional development. To improve access to mental health care in our system and particularly our Senior Elementary and High Schools, we contracted service with an additional LHIN Mental Health & Addictions nurse for the 2020-21 school year. We continued to maintain a full staffing complement of 6 CCTB School Mental Health Counsellors. Our Urgent Response Guidelines were fully implemented this year.

The Guidelines support staff response to urgent student mental health situations such as emergencies and crises.

Attendance Matters In hopes to alleviate school absenteeism, the Attendance Matters committee gatherers to collaborate and determine system- wide planning. Through the use of evidence based tools our Attendance team is able to determine factors contributing to Persistent Absenteeism including: school climate, school safety, community safety and parental access to basic living needs. The unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and families has been profound. To this extent the implementation of strategies to support families includes ongoing community collaboration ensuring access to technology, food security, housing, and mental health supports.

By increasing the likelihood of student engagement the overall Persistent Absenteeism during the 2020-2021 academic year referrals increased by 56% due to COVID-19.

Violence Prevention & Threat Assessment The Board continues to support school and community initiatives and partnerships that prioritize staff and student safety and aim to prevent violence, respond to threats of violence in a timely and effective manner. The VTRA (Violence Threat Risk Assessment) model was pursued without success by our Board and other Boards in the region due to different levels of readiness among staff and community partners.

Moving forward, our Board continues to follow protocols in place with police to maximize student safety and respond to threats of violence. The Board has also been an active partner in supporting classroom-based approaches to violence prevention in partnership with local organizations. This past year we supported teacher implementation (Heath & Phys Ed, Religious Education, Guidance) of the Fourth R Healthy Relationships/ Violence Prevention Program for grades 7-9. The Program has been shown to be effective in building healthy relationship skills and lowering risks of gender-based violence.

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Three-Year Math Plan During the development of our current Three Year Math Plan, we developed an overarching question to frame our thinking and learning: “How do we ensure that Mathematics is an open door for all of our students?” This was done in order to guide us while implementing the new Mathematics curriculum ensuring that equity and inclusivity would be at the forefront of our thinking while building a community of math learners in respect to Assessment, Special Education, and building Family Connections. The 2020-2021 school year was considered our bridge year to our Math Plan accomplishing some of the following: communications with Board of Trustees, CPIC, SEAC in order to highlight the new math curriculum.

New Pedagogies for Deeper Learning (NPDL) As stated, we have continued to grow capacity with our school teams around through the use of the collaborative inquiry cycle, educators are able to customize instruction with their students, assisting with their methods of study and comprehension. Elements of pedagogical practice, learning partnerships, and customized learning environments were introduced to learning teams representing all of our schools K-12 during the 2019-2020 school year. A team was designed to collaborate and create long-term planning around deep learning. Strategic planning was formed through stakeholder feedback aligning with the Board Improvement Plan valuing our three drivers of education: Academic Excellence, Well-Being, and Equity. During the course of the year, groupings of educators participated in on-line NPDL sessions growing capacity in how to leverage Pedagogical Practices, Learning Partnerships, Learning Environments and Leveraging Digital.

Summer Learning Program In an effort to reduce the summer learning gap, a Ministry summer learning initiative was delivered. The threeweek program, offered from July 5th to 23rd, consisted of synchronous online learning each day from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. using Google Meet. It was open to all student levels and various needs with a specific focus on literacy and numeracy. A class for English Language Learners (EEL) and Social/Emotional Learners (SEL) was also offered. With 99 students from Grades K-8 attending the program, it was considered a huge success.

Summer School This year, Summer school was offered virtually to students. In addition, a reach-ahead program was offered.

Early Years School educator teams continued their work on Self-regulation and Mindfulness and examined multiple pieces that contribute to calm and balanced classrooms. Professional development in the area of Catholic Virtues in Primary Classrooms, Google Forms/Documentation related to the Four Frames in the Communication of Learning, Physical Literacy and Addendums to Kindergarten Program were all delivered throughout the year.

Kindergarten Skills Camp A school readiness project program was offered to learners entering Kindergarten. This program was developed to assist pre-school children successfully transition into a classroom environment. In collaboration with a community partner agency, a team consisting of a Speech-Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Early Childhood Educator and Communicative Disorders Assistant was secured to implement the program prior to school start up in September 2021. The program included activities to encourage the development of speech and language skills, listening skills, social skills, self-regulation and understanding of routines. This year the program was expanded and offered to 60 incoming Kindergarten students.

Summer Primary Skills Camp The Primary Transition Class was designed to help TBCDSB students who are entering Grade 1 and 2 to successfully transition into the classroom environment for September 2021. Run by elementary teachers and a Speech Language Pathologist, this transition class focussed on the critical predictors for reading success: oral language development (vocabulary, narrative), phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and print concepts. The program also included activities to support fine and gross motor skills and social/emotional skills and self-regulation.

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

Summer Junior Skills Camp The Primary Transition Class was designed to help TBCDSB students in Grades 3-6 to successfully transition into the classroom environment in September 2021. The Junior Skills Program supported students who require interventions in the areas of Math, Language and Technology. Activities also supported healthy social/ emotional development and mental and physical well-being.

Summer 7-8 Skills Camp This program was extended to students who were entering grade 7 or 8 who would benefit from interventions in math and language. Activities also supported healthy social/emotional development and mental and physical well-being.

Summer Land Based Camp This land based program, located at Fort William First Nation, focused on an Indigenized and environmentallyfocused approach to learning by first recognizing the deep, physical, mental, and spiritual connection to the land that is a part of Indigenous cultures. In partnership with two Speech-Language Pathologists, the program included activities to encourage the development of speech and language skills, listening skills, social skills, self-regulation and understanding of routines.

Summer Skills Development Program for K-8 Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder This skills camp provided activities that included a focus on communication skill-building, encouraging appropriate social skills, and the importance of health and wellness and physical activity.

Summer Transition to High School Camp With the use of technology, this independent online learning module helped to increase confidence and independence with strategies to manage workload, stay on top of tasks, and become a more confident reader and effective writer.

Indigenous Transitions Wellness Camp Delivered by a hybrid model of virtual and in-person engagement our FNMI Graduation Coaches and the incoming Grade 8 cohorts for our High Schools, came together for a transitions wellness camp. The focus of this three-week camp was supporting the mental health and wellness of the students and their families.

Youth explored themes of self-care, cultural wellness, and the places in the community where they can access support.

French Immersion Summer Camp We were able to offer a one-week Summer Camp as a means to re-engage Elementary French Immersion students with oral language strategies along with the exploration of French Culture during the month of August.

We had 64 students participate from Grades 1-6.

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Empower Reading The evidence-based Empower Reading program is an early intervention program developed to assist children and adolescents with difficulties in reading and spelling, into independent, and flexible learners. Our Board has offered this program for over 15 years but was unable to deliver the program due to the extended school closures. It is our intention to continue to deliver and expand the program for the 2021-22 school year.

3 Year French Plan We presented our findings around our 2017-2020 Three Year Plan to the Ministry of Education FSL Division in the fall of 2020. We used this as an opportunity to meet with our FI Principals in order to communicate the findings and in order to strategize around the provincial FSL Goals moving forward with our next three-year plan, (2020-2023) The three main goals are: Goal 1: Increasing student confidence, proficiency, and achievement in FSL Goal 2: Increasing the percentage of students studying FSL until Graduation Goal 3: Increase student, educator, parent, and community engagement in FSL We were able to recertify Board DELF “Correcteurs” in the Fall of 2020. We continued to see growth in the number of Core French and French Immersion students wanting to challenge the DELF while we were unable to offer this opportunity due to school closures.

Board Improvement Plan (BIPSA) Provincial wide Board Improvement Plans are beneficial in refining and assisting with student achievement and well-being for students and staff. With input and assistance from Principals and Student Achievement team members, our BIPSA provides a roadmap of ways to progress and grow in improvement and future planning.

EQAO Targets As a result of COVID -19, EQAO assessments were suspended during the 2020-21 school year.

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SUPPORTING

collaboration

ENSURE CONSISTENCY AND ENCOURAGE ONGOING IMPROVEMENT

Day Treatment Program, Elementary Day treatment is offered for our Elementary students at Our Lady of Charity School (grades 3-6), in conjunction with Children’s Centre Thunder Bay (CCTB). Students hindered by social, emotional, and/or behavioural struggles in which their academic success is obstructed, are able to benefit from this modified academic programming.

This program was reviewed in 2020/2021 with CCTB to discuss strategies which will enhance the program and review the memorandum of understanding.

Indigenous Education Department Planning took place to create and cultivate an Indigenous Education Department which began in 2019-2020. The creation of the department has focused on streamlining efforts in Indigenous teaching while maintaining Indigenous support within the organization.

Teaching Indigenous Students Indigenous Education Department Planning took place to create and cultivate an Indigenous Education Department which began in 2019-2020. The creation of the department has focused on streamlining efforts in Indigenous teaching while maintaining Indigenous support within the organization.

Coordinator for Indigenous Education Our Coordinator, Tesa Fiddler, has been supporting the work of the Indigenous Education Department staff and providing resources and support. Tesa met regularly with the Indigenous Education Student Counsellors and the Resource Teachers.

She has also worked with Ojibwe language teachers. Our Coordinator also assisted Thunder Bay Police rein their Organizational Change Project.

Programming Several successful programs were developed throughout the year, assisting educators and schools to build cultural awareness and provide strategies to support

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Indigenous students. We received funding for an Indigenous Cultural Safety (ICS) Pilot Program. The goal of the project was to explore the concept of Indigenous cultural safety to remove systemic barriers for Indigenous youth in our system. The professional development happened at three schools: St. Ann, Pope John Paul II, and St. Patrick High School. As part of the project plan, professional learning was offered to staff which included teachers, student support persons, or office administration.

First Nations, Metis Inuit (FNMI) Collaborative Inquiry Supporting the success of our Indigenous learners is essential, as well as interacting with parents/guardians and communities. Collaborative inquiries engage students, staff, and parents in specific school communities. This past school year, St. Ann school has partnered with a class in Sachigo Lake, and focused their inquiry on student’s interest in each of the communities. Students communicated with each other through technology.

Indigenous Support Program Biwaase’aa, is an in-school and after-school program for Indigenous elementary students and families. The program supports the social, emotional, physical and cognitive wellbeing of Indigenous students through a focus on life skills, cultural awareness, academic mentoring, structured social activities and healthy nutrition. St. Ann and Our Lady of Charity currently have this program embedded daily in their schools.

Identity Based Research Project In partnership with Dr. Lisa Korteweg, a professor at Lakehead University, the Board completed an Identity-based research project, funded by the Ministry of Education to examine potential systemic barriers for the voluntary self-identification of Indigenous students and staff. The data collected in the research provided a foundation and guide to the Indigenous Cultural Safety project.

Indigenous Counsellors To provide direct support to our high school and senior elementary school students, Indigenous Counsellors are on site. Counsellors support students transitioning to our schools from northern communities and offer school-based mentoring, leadership and cultural programs. Indigenous Counsellors are members of school mental health and well-being teams, and work closely with guidance departments and school mental health professionals.

Indigenous Grad Coach The Indigenous Graduation Coach has been providing support and programming for Indigenous students at St. Patrick High School. The Indigenous Grad Coach provides academic, social, and emotional support to students, primarily grade 9 students which is the cohort that she is currently following. She works closely with th Indigenous Student Counsellor, and with community organizations to provide lunch and after school programs. In January 2020, planning began to implement the transition for grade 8 students to St. Patrick High School.The Indigenous Grad Coach continues to work with students and families at St. Patrick’s by phone and internet to support the transition.

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Cultural Rooms Cultural rooms offer our students a quiet place of contemplation, ceremony and community. Two new cultural rooms were planned and budgeted for St. Ann and Bishop Gallagher. Construction was delayed in the summer and will commence in 2020/2021. St. Ann’s cultural room is now complete. Bishop Gallagher school is scheduled for construction by Christmas Break 2021.

Programming Indigenous Language classes and Indigenous Studies programs are offered to our students, with the Native Language program expanding further, reaching more schools. Programming is offered to our Indigenous Language Teachers, assisting in understanding the curriculum expectations. Professional Development is in partnership with Lakehead University’s Indigenous Language Instructor Program. Together with programming, cultural celebrations also occur within our schools, and we participate annually in National Indigenous Peoples Day, Orange Shirt Day, Treaty Week, and in the National Day of Remembrance at Fort William First Nation.

Indigenous Education Advisory Council Committee (IEAC) With assistance from our Advisory Committee, Indigenous programming and services are designed and expanded. The Committee provides direction and vision as it relates to Indigenous student success.

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Self-Identification Voluntary self-identification of Indigenous ancestry is an excellent opportunity for students to declare their culture and background. This additional knowledge provides information to our Board and schools, assisting in utilizing resources to support Indigenous student success. All Staff were provided the opportunity to selfidentify during the Identity Based Research Project.

Full Day Kindergarten at Fort William First Nation Full-Day Kindergarten is offered at Fort William First Nation as a satellite campus of St. Ann school. This project was planned in the 2017-2018 school year, and was launched September 2018. The program was successful, particularly in programming, student attendance and improvement in students’ language and speech.The project was extended into the 2020-2021 school year.

International Student Program The COVID-19 Pandemic significantly limited recruitment activity last year and all but eliminated international enrolment for the following year. 17 students who planned to attend our High Schools for the 2020/21 were not admitted due to restrictions resulting from the pandemic. Our team has realigned our recruitment efforts and have partnered with MLI, a company who specialized in the recruitment of International students. The goal is to streamline the recruitment process and ensure that our Board is open and accepting of International students.

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ENDURING

sustainability

DEMONSTRATE THE VALUE OF SUPPORTING CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Identify, Develop & Support Leaders Leadership plays a pivotal role in any organization. Implementation of a Board Leadership Development Strategy (BLDS) is extremely imperative in the roles of Principal and Vice Principal.

Focusing on mentoring aspiring and experienced leaders is imperative in succession planning and performance appraisal. Unfortunately, the Ministry put a pause on funding this program for the 2020-21 school year. We are in the process of reviewing the Aspiring Leadership Program with the intention of finding innovative ways to support it through our own funds.

Resource Support Board Resource staff follow a two-tiered system of support for students considered at risk academically. One level focuses on the teachers and the other on the students themselves.

Support for staff includes: capacity building in Literacy and Numeracy and Indigenous world views, to help increase performance at all levels for all students. Our Literacy, Numeracy and French Resource teachers co-plan, co-teach and co-debrief with classroom teachers to strengthen content area understanding and instructional strategies. An emphasis on improving teacher pedagogy, including the integration of Deep Learning, is a focus for this team.

The Indigenous Student Support Teacher works directly with students to inquire and discover which learning strategies work best for which students.

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Our English Language Learner Teachers work to support student culture and to strengthen language development and learning skills. Our Technology Resource Teacher worked alongside students and teachers to maximize the effective use of technology in the classroom; helping students at all levels demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. Our Indigenous Education Resource Teacher worked with teachers to infuse Indigenous worldviews into classroom work, bringing Indigenous perspectives into the curriculum. Part of the role includes highlighting resources that teachers can use to support the integration of the TRC Calls to Action within their practice. Our Resource SSPs, provide support to staff and students in the areas of ABA, technology support and communication support. Our Resource ECE provides support to ELKP educators in programming, self-regulation, and assessment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reallocation of resource staff, not all staff support was available consistently throughout the 2020-2021 school year.

Special Education Teacher & Student Support In order to remain up to date on topics relating to Special Education, Board resource staff attend professional development conferences and participate regularly in RSEC (Regional Special Education Committee) meetings to share best practices and resources. In turn, resource staff facilitated virtual sessions for all school special education teachers addressing: Ministry or Board initiatives, changes or additions to current regulations or processes, data sharing and reports on current trends as well as

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training in new special education software, assessments, and intervention programs. Supporting students with special education needs is a priority. We ensure fairness and inclusivity, creating a sense of belonging, where students are motivated to meet their greatest potential. Support for struggling learners follows a ‘Response to Intervention’ approach which applies the appropriate Tier level of 1, 2, or 3. This is accomplished by having a process in place for in-school special education teams to monitor and assess student progress and make next step referrals to board level support and then to more focussed interventions provided by special Board programs, or agency partnerships. An area of great attention and focus this year has been on the OHRC Right to Read Inquiry and the benefit of a Structured Literacy approach to instruction. As we follow it closely we have begun the process of developing a 3 year early identification and intervention plan that will be initiated in the 2021-22 school year.

Ensuring Continuous Renewal of Facilities The past year has been a very busy one for the Plant department as many projects were started that had been deferred from the previous year. Some of the larger projects included a complete retrofit of St. Patrick High School auxiliary gym, St. Ignatius High School front entrance and exterior retrofit and partial roof replacements at St. Paul, St. Bernard and St. Ignatius schools. There were many other updates including bathroom renovations, door replacements, front entrance improvements and classroom updates to various schools. A culture room at St. Ann School was completed with plans to add culture rooms to Bishop Gallagher and St. Jude schools in the next coming year. The Board received COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure stream (CVRIS) funding from the federal and provincial government. This one time funding was used to change the heating system at St. Jude School and to purchase water bottle filling stations for all schools. There was also an allocation of one time funding from the Climate Action Incentive Fund (CAIF) that allowed the Board to update boilers at St. Bernard and St. Pius schools.

Ensuring Quality Technology Remote learning and the virtual school put an increased demand for student devices. As a result the Board had to purchase additional student devices to meet the demand for at home learning. An additional 680 devices were purchased so that the Board could ensure that all students had a device to learn from home. The Ministry of Education provided additional funding to help support the cost of the additional devices.The Board successfully completed the secondary school teacher device refresh as planned in year 4 of the Information Technology Plan. Permanent secondary teachers were issued an Acer Spin 713 Chromebook in return for end of life Macbooks. 120 Chromebooks were purchased to ensure all permanent SSPs had a device. Elementary teacher devices will be replaced with new Chromebooks in the 2021-22 school year. Administration is currently working on an updated 5 Year Information Technology Plan to present to the Board of Trustees in early 2022.

Increasing Environmental Friendliness Schools continued to develop their gardens and bottle filling stations were added to reduce waste and highlight how an individual’s actions can make an impact on the environment.

Health and Safety Performance Improvement Our Board values the health and safety of our students, staff and guests. In order to remain safe, and prevent injuries. With the onset of the global pandemic in March, 2020, the health and safety needs

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and emergency response requirements for the Board became the primary focus. The Pandemic Committee was established and utilized to vet safety protocols and processes to support the safe reopening of schools during this unprecedented time. The Board maintained it’s monthly commitment to site inspections and ensuring safe learning and working environments for all in-person and remote learning periods. Additional COVID-19 processes and protocols were established in consultation with the Ministry of Education, Public Health Ontario and Thunder Bay District Health Unit.

Pandemic Committee The Pandemic Committee was called into effect in March, 2020. The objective of the Pandemic Committee was to ensure clear communication, preparedness, effective problem solving and to support learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee works with all of our emergency response partners to mitigate the impacts on the school system including taking direction from the Medical Officer of Health and the Ministry of Education. The Pandemic Committee had frequent meetings throughout the 2020-21 school year in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with focus on measures for preparedness, safety, response and imminent recovery. The Board’s priority continues to be the health and safety of all students and staff. As a Catholic board, we embrace our moral imperative to ensure that our processes to achieve this responsibility meet best practice standards during the pandemic.

Ensuring Board Governance and a Balanced Budget We continually implement and verify that we are in compliance with new Ministry directives and legislation. Together, our Board supports the work of our Trustees in the development and review of policies and procedural by-laws and through professional development sessions.

Together, with the Senior Team, we implement the recommendations of the Operational Review, the internal and external audit committees, and Risk Management feedback in a timely manner.

Special Education An area of great attention and focus this year has been on the OHRC Right to Read Inquiry and the benefit of a Structured Literacy approach to instruction. As we follow it closely we have begun the process of developing a 3 year early identification and intervention plan that will be initiated in the 2021-22 school year. The Special Education 3 yr Plan includes the following priorities: Tiered Early Intervention including Structured Literacy and Math Interventions, Consistency in the monitoring and accountability of IEP development and implementation and the IPRC process and, implementation of Essential Skills programming at senior elementary and second level within special education programs.

The following actions were initiated in the 2020-2021 school year: Sound Skills PD to Kindergarten and Special Education teachers, K and Grade 1 Brigance and Sound Skills Screening and Assessment followed by the development of intervention plans for students identified at-risk, as well as a Math Pilot Intervention Plan that included various schools and grades and included intervention training for Student Support Persons. y in the monitoring and accountability of IEP development and implementation and the IPRC process and, implementation of Essential Skills programming at senior elementary and second level within special education programs.

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

The following actions were initiated in the 2020-2021 school year: Sound Skills PD to Kindergarten and Special Education teachers, K and Grade 1 Brigance and Sound Skills Screening and Assessment followed by the development of intervention plans for students identified at-risk, as well as a Math Pilot Intervention Plan that included various schools and grades and included intervention training for Student Support Persons.

Intake and Assessment, Early Years This year our Board was funded by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Children and Youth Services to Several methods of assessment are used in the early years, identifying next steps, further assessment, specialized intervention or ongoing monitoring. Ages and Stages Screening Tool, Sounds Skills Screener, Brigance screens and the updated, revised Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition (WIAT- III), are some of the tools used to help identify academic strengths and weaknesses of a student, which helps to inform decisions regarding eligibility for educational services. During the school closure, Special Education teachers contacted each newly registered family and completed a condensed version of the ASQ to ensure that we were still prepared to meet the needs of our incoming students.

Students with Autism This year our Board was funded by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Children and Youth Services, to support the Ontario Autism Program. Much of the funding was used to support the training and professional development of staff, as well as the transitions of students from school to school. The funds also supported a Board Autism Consultant position and a School Based Behaviour Lead whom we contracted from a partner agency. This Lead was able to work with students with challenging behaviours, mentor board staff, and work directly with families to support in the home. Unfortunately due to a lack of supply staff, courses through the Geneva Center were cancelled and deferred to the 2021-2022 school year.

C Ocommunities NNECTING

E N S U R I N G A L L PA R E N T S & C A R E G I V E R S F E E L W E L C O M E D & I N V O LV E D

Communication and the Pandemic Communication, especially throughout a global pandemic, remained a priority for our Board. Ensuring staff, students and families were aware of the changing situation was imperative. Positive communication continues to be of great importance. Utilizing various social media platforms, our website and SchoolMessenger, we continue to send informative messages and good news stories across our system.

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TBCDSB 2020-2021

ENSURING

equity

FAIRNESS AND INCLUSION THROUGHOUT OUR BOARD

Embracing inclusion and fairness throughout our Board, we continue to work and establish a variety of initiatives supporting equity. System administration established direction for our schools and monitored their progress closely. Teachers, support staff, parents and students partnered together to implement these initiatives such as: Natural Helpers, We Day Student Conference, Choices Programming, Student Advisory Council and Student Senates, Indigenous Educational art projects and a Indigenous Studies Course. The formation of many inclusive groups including, Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Positive Space and Rainbow Alliance create spaces for engagement in social justice work, inclusion, and celebrate diversity throughout the school communities.

All system and school leaders are engaged in the School Improvement Planning, with a focus on student wellbeing. Principals are directed to establish and maintain a safe and accepting school committee and many of these groups assist with this improvement. Our Board has created a de-streaming team and participated in various Ministry workshops building capacity in our Board while preparing our schools to increase educator capacity, student engagement, achievement and well-being. As a board we are finding ways to make cultural shifts identifying and dismantle systemic discrimination and structural inequities.

Trades, Entrepreneurship & Further Programming Through programming such as Ontario Youth Apprenticeship (OYAP) and Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM), Co-Operative Education (Coop), Aboriginal Youth Entrepreneurship Program (AYEP), Dual Credit, and Advanced Placement Programs, our students have amazing opportunities at their disposal. Conferences and programming aimed towards women and Indigenous students are becoming recurrent, with positive role models and entrepreneurs inspiring them to get involved in the career of trades. Growing partnerships with sector specific employers provide students with the opportunity to build trade specific skills and knowledge.

This allows students to develop a direct connection between dual credit courses and their placement as a viable career pathway. It allows students to experience post secondary education, while earning secondary school credit and college credit. We have 12 SHSM programs successfully running. These programs have seen an increase in student enrollment along with an increase in SHSM completion rates, providing opportunities to participate in sector specific experiential learning, reach ahead and industry applicable certification and training. Students graduating with a SHSM red seal on their diploma, transitioned to a post secondary pathway with applicable skills, training, education and experience. Strengthening our partnerships with post secondary institutions has provided students with the opportunity for guided tours of various institutions, classrooms, and shops; along with presentations and workshops have been provided to students at both high schools and alternative education programs.

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

ENROLMENT

Corpus Christi - 202 Holy Cross - 313 Holy Family - 363 Our Lady of Charity - 105 St. Ann - 164 St Bernard (Eng) - 124 St Bernard (FI) - 419 St. Elizabeth - 237 St. Francis - 152 St. Jude - 141 St. Margaret - 177 St. Martin (Eng) - 204 St. Martin (FI) - 347 St. Paul - 110 St. Pius X - 199 St. Thomas Aquinas - 196 St. Vincent - 100 Virtual School - 635 TOTAL GRADE JK TO 6 - 4,188 Bishop E Q Jennings - 244 Bishop Gallagher - 244 Pope John Paul II - 461 TOTAL GRADE 7 to 8 - 949 TOTAL ELEMENTARY - 5,137 St. Ignatius - 989 St. Patrick - 920 Virtual School - 249 TOTAL SECONDARY - 2,158 TOTAL ALL STUDENTS -7,295

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TBCDSB 2020-2021

BUDGET |

$114,424,011

Expenditures 22020-2021 019-20 Expen ditures

School Operations and School Maintenance $8,737,363 $8,873,165

Instruction $83,144,530 $83,709,205

School Renewal $6,586,307 $6,258,005 Debt Repayment $2,479,229 $2,479,233 Transportation $6,622,060 $6,405,760 Administration $6,718,720 $4,624,680

201 9-2 0 SSource ource oof f FFinancing inancing 2020-2021

Provincial Grants & Taxation

Tuition Fees $2,292,241 $2,256,723

$108,511,223 $111,245,470 Other Revenues $886,300 $1,446,300

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

OUR TRUSTEES

at a glance

2020-2021 BOARD OF TRUSTEES BOARD OF TRUSTEES Front row left to right: Dina McFarlane, Phil Pelletier, Vice-Chair Loretta Fonso †. Back row left to right: Chair Francis Veneruz, Eleanor Ashe, Kathy O’Brien, Lawrence Badanai.

TRUSTEE Eleanor Ashe

TRUSTEE Kathy O’Brien

TRUSTEE Lawrence Badanai

TRUSTEE Phil Pelletier

VICE-CHAIR † Loretta Fonso Dina McFarlane*

CHAIR OF THE BOARD Francis Veneruz

TRUSTEE Dina McFarlane Tony Romeo*

7,295 STUDENTS TEACHING STAFF Elementary Teachers 361 Secondary Teachers 163 Non-Teaching Staff 487 20 SCHOOLS: 15 Elementary, 3 Senior Elementary, 2 Secondary

STUDENT TRUSTEE Julia Buchan

FRENCH IMMERSION: 6 Dual Track Schools: 2 Elementary, 2 Senior Elementary, and 2 Secondary

STUDENT TRUSTEE Noah Coccimiglio

6 Trustees elected to serve on the Board for four-year term 1 Trustee appointed by Fort William First Nation 2 Student Trustees appointed for a 1-year term † Departed * Appointed/Elected 28

TBCDSB 2020-2021

OUR BOARD

at a glance

2 0 2 0 - 2 0 2 1 S E N I O R A D M I N I S T R AT I O N SENIOR TEAM Front row, Pino Tassone, Director of Education; From Left to right : Sheila Chiodo, Superintendent of Business & Corporate Services, Allison Sargent, Left: Superintendent of Education; Jean-Paul Tennier, Superintendent of Education, Omer Belisle, Superintendent of Education;

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION: Pino Tassone

MANAGER OF EMPLOYEE SERVICES: Chad Rojik

SUPERINTENDENT OF BUSINESS AND CORPORATE SERVICES: Sheila Chiodo

FAITH LEADER: Fr. Ciarán Donnelly

SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION: Omer Belisle

COMMUNICATIONS TEAM: Alexandra Franków, Communications Officer Brent Mandryk, Manager of Business Services

SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION: Jean-Paul Tennier SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION: Allison Sargent

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DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT

I N memory LOVING

TO M M U S TA P I C + LO R E T TA F O N S O

TO M M U S TA P I C

LO R E T TA F O N S O

August 7, 1959 – December 18, 2020

June 25, 1949 - March 16, 2021

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TBCDSB 2020-2021

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T H U N D E R B AY C AT H O L I C D I S T R I C T S C H O O L B O A R D Educating for Christian Values & Academic Excellence www.tbcschools.ca