Catholic Education

TORONTO - The Marshall Medium student newspaper was looking for hot topics for its spring 2011 issue. So when 12th-grader Erica Lenti pitched a story about the gay-straight alliances springing up in Ontario schools, the newspaper staff was sold.

Lenti interviewed staff and students at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School in Toronto and the article passed through editing. But when Lenti picked up a copy of The Medium, she learned her story had been pulled.

Her facts were incorrect, she was told. Her take: school administrators wanted nothing to do with the topic.

TORONTO - Terence Sheridan, the newly appointed president of Toronto’s St. Michael’s College School, may be the first layperson to lead the school, but he’s no stranger to the Basilian tradition of the community.

An alumnus of the Toronto all-boys private school, Sheridan has spent the last 15 years as a teacher, administrator and coach at St. Michael’s. And in July 2012, he will succeed Fr. Joseph Redican, C.S.B., as president. During his two-year term, Sheridan will also continue to serve as principal of the school, a role he has held since January.

TORONTO - During a trip to Bangladesh, Angela Grace Macri watched with her daughter, Mary Anne, as Bangladeshi mothers taught children the lessons they learned at the Amarok Society’s “Angela Women’s School.”

It’s a school named after Macri, the 2011 Toronto Catholic District School Board Alumni Award winner.

Macri says helping to educate girls through her volunteer work with the non-profit Amarok Society borrows lessons learned about her Catholic faith from her parents and her teachers at Toronto’s Loretto Abbey High School.

TORONTO - Close to 7,000 Catholic elementary students could lose their breakfast program if proposed City of Toronto budget cuts are passed, says Trustee Maria Rizzo.

Without the breakfast program, kids will be going to school hungry, she said, and would be detrimental to student learning.

“I hope (Mayor) Rob Ford can make sure they'll give them a little bit of gravy,” Rizzo told The Catholic Register.

TORONTO - Ontario Education Minister Laurel Broten praised the anti-bullying initiatives undertaken by Ontario Catholic school boards and said she is “very confident” that Catholic schools can fulfill new government requirements to make schools safer.

Broten told The Catholic Register that she was “pleased when we launched the comprehensive action plan last week” and “standing side by side with Catholic teachers and trustees, each and every one of them was standing up against bullying.”

TORONTO - Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees re-elected board chair Ann Andrachuk for a second term at their Dec. 1 board meeting.

Andrachuk spoke of the board's accomplishments in the past year, including balancing its budget, establishing committees on governance and student achievement and selecting a new director of education.

“We have been riding the crest of a wave,” she said. “I look forward to leading this board as we continue to move together with a strong and unified voice and shared wisdom, always focused on student success and achievement.”

TORONTO - The key to a successful school, says principal Dianne Parwicki, is a strong partnership between parents, the school and the community,

“Leadership means building trust between parents and the school,” said Parwicki, who was honoured for her leadership with a Principal of Excellence Award by the Toronto Association of Parents in Catholic Education.

Parwicki, principal at Toronto's Fr. John Redmond High School, was honoured along with Toni Mayer, principal at Toronto's Holy Spirit Elementary School. 

TORONTO - An all-girls Toronto Catholic high school is looking to raise $20,000 this school year to help sustain South Sudan’s first secondary school for girls.

“We are trying to raise enough funds to help (the Loretto Sisters) open that school so young women can continue to be educated,” said Loretto Abbey High School principal Alda Bassani.

Toronto’s Loretto Abbey is partnering with another Loretto Abbey in Dublin, Ireland, to raise funds for the Loreto Secondary Boarding School in South Sudan. The school is run by the Irish province of the Loretto Sisters, also known as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin May (IBVM). Students and staff will be donating proceeds from charity events throughout the school year. Planned so far are a pasta night, Christmas concert and multicultural event.

TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board voted unanimously to look into creating the board’s first independent ombudsperson.

Vice-chair Jo-Ann Davis, who sponsored the motion at the Nov. 24 board meeting, said an independent ombudsperson would “ensure further transparency” and a system that’s “responsive and accountable.”

The TCDSB policy and governance committee will be looking into the motion and will be inviting experts to speak on the issue, she said.

TORONTO - Canadians' support for the only Catholic university in the former Soviet Union — which was recently backed up by a $1.2 million donation from businessman James Temerty — sends a strong message that promotes democracy and religious freedom in Ukraine, said Fr. Borys Gudziak.

“After the Orange Revolution hit, we had very high hopes for fully democratic prospects of an independent Ukraine,” the rector at Ukrainian Catholic University told The Catholic Register while in Toronto as part of a six-week tour of Canada, the United States and some European countries.

“We have (since) turned towards authoritarianism and some politically motivated trials.”