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{mosimage}Eleven-year-old Mikylie Shapka joined classmates at Edmonton’s St. Martin Catholic School in presenting close to $3,000 worth of gift cards to three refugee families just before the school year ended in June.

Shapka says it’s a way for students to help others in need.

“We learned that it is hard to live in other places where girls are not allowed to go to school,” she told The Catholic Register.

{mosimage}TORONTO - It was a school camping trip in Algonquin Park that helped baseball prospect Jerome Werniuk define his future goals and the leadership role he would like to take on in his life.

The 17-year-old Texas Rangers draft pick says leadership camps like the one he took with students from Toronto’s Neil McNeil High School have helped shape his outlook on faith, baseball and education.

Werniuk was the 604th player chosen in this year’s Major League Baseball draft.

{mosimage}TORONTO  - It was a perfect year for Jana Cmorejova. The 17-year-old Bishop Allen Academy High School student scored the best marks in the Toronto Catholic District School Board, earning a perfect 100 per cent in all six of her Grade 12 subjects,

Cmorejova credits hard work and a passion for education as the keys to her success.

“I want to make a difference somehow in life, to make the best of what I can do and be the best I can be,” she said. “I believe that’s going to happen to me through education and university.”

{mosimage}TORONTO - When 11-year-old Madison Wood first started kindergarten at Toronto’s Our Lady of Wisdom Elementary School, her mother enrolled her at the school for a specific reason: an after-hours enrichment program featuring dance, drama and arts.

Pam Wray, 40, said Madison gained confidence after meeting students from different ages and participating in Irish dance, judo and the homework club.

{mosimage}Ontario Catholic schools will be monitoring the swine flu and reinforcing the message of good hygiene when school starts on Sept. 8.

Halton Catholic District School Board staff will be meeting with the local health department to discuss plans of effectively communicating information about the swine flu, also known as the HIN1 virus.

{mosimage}TORONTO - After a successful first year of school-based policing, 20 more officers will be patrolling hallways this  September to bring the total number of officers in schools to 50, says Toronto Police.

“These officers approached these assignments with insatiable energy and dedication. As a result, we have created new relationships with young people all over Toronto. They, in turn have come to respect police officers on an entirely different level,” said Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair in a statement.

{mosimage}TORONTO - It's going to be a tough new assignment, but the Toronto Catholic District School Board's new supervisor says he's up to the challenge.

Richard Alway assumes his new role Aug. 27, taking over from the provincially appointed supervision team of Norbert Hartmann and Norm Forma. The team resigned on Aug. 21. The Ontario government has been running the embattled board since last year when trustees became mired in a spending scandal and failed to balance the board's budget.

{mosimage}TORONTO - The newly appointed provincial supervisor of the Toronto Catholic District School Board is overturning a controversial decision to axe the Arrowsmith program, effectively ending a lawsuit against the board and Ontario’s education minister.

Richard Alway said in a letter to parents that after a “careful review,” and in consultation with the board’s director of education, he has decided to continue the program for students currently enrolled until 2012.

{mosimage}BRAMPTON, Ont. - More than 300 students celebrated the opening of the first Canadian high school named after former Toronto archbishop Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic on Sept. 8.

Principal Tim Lariviere said the Brampton school is honouring Ambrozic in a number of ways. Its coat of arms includes many of Ambrozic’s own coat of arms, complete with the cardinal’s hat, cross and the picture of the lion representing the Gospel of Mark, the topic of Ambrozic’s doctoral thesis.

{mosimage}TORONTO  - The Ontario government’s proposed bill on student accountability would diminish the powers of democratically elected school trustees, says the president of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association.

Paula Peroni told The Catholic Register that if passed in the Ontario legislature, Bill 177 would increase the provincial government’s control over school boards.