School trustees met for their inaugural school board meetings in the first week of December.

The boards include: Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, Durham Catholic District School Board, York Catholic District School Board, Simcoe-Muskoka Catholic District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board.

Mary Ann Martin was re-elected for her seventh term as chair of the Durham Catholic District School Board, while Scott Murdock was elected for the first time as vice chair.

York Catholic District School Board re-elected Elizabeth Crowe as chair and Carol Cotton as vice-chair.

Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board has elected Rick Maloney as chair. Previously, he's served as chairman for two terms, in 2003 and 2004. John Grise is the newly elected vice chair.

Bruno Iannicca has been elected chair of Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and Mississauga Wards 9 and 10 trustee Esther O'Toole has been elected as vice chair.

Iannicca takes on the role of chair during a difficult time for the Dufferin-Peel board. Its has a projected 2006-2007 deficit of approximately $7.5 million and is under the financial control of a supervision team appointed by the provincial government. The supervisor has to balance the budget within two years. This situation restricts Iannicca's role as chair to dealing with non-financial matters until the budget is balanced.

"Those of us who are returning trustees have been operating for the past two months under government supervision," said Iannicca in a news release.

"While we will get to a balanced budget position one way or another, we again call on the province to accelerate the resolution of chronic underfunding and the dysfunctional provincial funding formula that have hamstrung our board and others."

As previously reported in The Catholic Register, the Toronto Catholic District School Board has re-elected Oliver Carroll as chair and Mary Cicogna as vice chair of the board.