TORONTO - If Ontario's Catholic schools are struggling to stay afloat in turbulent waters, it would seem that half the time Catholics are stirring up the waves themselves. At a two-day conference dealing with the subject Nov. 24-25, leaders of the provincial separate school system struggled with how to overcome differences and face external challenges united.

TORONTO - With the elections out of the way, Ontario's new Catholic trustees will be shown the ropes of their job Jan. 12-13 in Toronto.

The Jolly Green Giant used to urge us all to "Look up, look waaay up." The Toronto Catholic District School Board is looking up into the air above some of it's old, crumbling and underpopulated schools and hoping to see some new money.

The Catholic presence on university campuses across Canada has often been reported as a tale of woe. Many Catholics have gotten used to the idea of their colleges as second-class citizens of the academy — intellectually suspect and financially under capitalized.

TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board is asking a judge to solve half its $34- million deficit problem.

TORONTO - Noel Martin thinks 42 years in Catholic education is not enough of a good thing. So he’s come back for more.

TORONTO - Six Ontario public school boards have passed motions calling for abolition of publicly funded Catholic education and that has Rick Johnson a little upset and embarrassed.

TORONTO - About 500 Catholic parents, pastors and teachers in Toronto staked a claim on the future of Catholic schools in the last of a province-wide series of consultations by the Institute for Catholic Education seeking community insight into future directions for Catholic education in Ontario.

TORONTO - Nancy Kirby says her first priorities as Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association president will be ensuring “equitable and adequate funding” for Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic schools and tackling the $68-million gap in special education funding for Catholic schools.

Kirby, 57, was elected OCSTA’s president at its annual conference in Thunder Bay April 30.

TORONTO - The average full-time elementary school teacher in Ontario’s Catholic system is putting in a 55.7-hour work week, and what counts as a part-time teaching job averages 36.8 hours per week, according to a new study commissioned by the teachers’ union.