Established in 1885 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. The Board has an unwavering commitment to educating the whole student on mental, emotional and spiritual levels, instilling the Catholic values necessary to thrive in the world. As a result, student achievement drives the Board’s ranking ahead of others in Ontario.

Located in north western Ontario, Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board employs over 1,000 faculty and staff at 21 properties, including 20 schools and the Catholic Education Centre. “Parents are really happy with the quality of education that they get for their children in our schools,” says John De Faveri, Director of Education.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

According to De Faveri, the Board is experiencing a two percent reduction in enrolment on a yearly basis. This is due to changing demographics and economic circumstances. “It has had an impact in terms of the number of students we will have for this coming September versus where we’ve been for the last couple of years,” says De Faveri. “That’s been a trend for the last three or four years.”

To address this challenge, administrators have had to find ways to maximize financial efficiency
and devise strategies to recruit eligible students. The Board looked at its capital plan and
focused on building enhancements, student achievement and instituting green initiatives to
improve the learning environment for its students. “I believe that we’re in a really good spot
where we’ve been focusing on the things that we should be focusing on and from all indicators
we’re doing quite well,” says De Faveri.

The introduction of full day kindergarten is expected to double the population of the Board’s
current kindergarten program, meaning the Board will have to plan for issues that haven’t been
addressed before, including before and after school care and expansion within the schools to
accommodate the additional students.

“We look at things within the context of our financial obligations, making sure that we’re making
commitments that are both short-term and long-term that we know are going to be viable
and sustainable over the long term,” says De Faveri. “Once you’ve started something, you’ve
created the expectation in the community that it’s going to be there for the next generation.”

STUDENT PROGRAMS

The Board is involved in innovative programs designed to enhance the students’ learning
experience. For elementary students, the Board introduced the Peer Assisted Learning Strategy
(PALS) to track student progress in language acquisition based on curriculum measures.
This year the Board plans to assess student progress in math. Grade eight students gain
valuable skills through the Design Technology and Culinary Program, which exposes them to
woodworking, design, robotics, nutrition, and food preparation as practical skills to complement
classroom learning. At the secondary level, students can take advantage of coop education or a
new Special High Skills Major program to give them a foundation for a career in healthcare.

ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES

“The number one priority within our capital improvement plan has been energy efficiency,”
says De Faveri. Honeywell assisted the Board in integrating energy efficient technologies for
heating and lighting systems. “As a result of that, we’re starting to see significant reductions,”
says De Faveri. Not only are carbon emissions reduced, but costs are reduced as well.

The Board has been granted funding to install solar voltaic panels in three schools. Solar
technology will generate enough power to allow a couple of the classrooms to come off of the
power grid and return energy to the grid. Students will reap educational rewards from the solar
technology as they will have the ability to monitor their energy use and creation and send extra
to the grid. Teachers can offer a multidisciplinary, practical application to mathematics, social
science, environmental responsibility, science and economics. “We’re excited about it because
we really believe that it’s going to be a very concrete learning experience for students,” says De
Faveri.

The Board was one of the first districts in Ontario to use all green cleaning supplies. Though
the Board anticipated it to be an expensive undertaking, due to the availability of the products,
it hasn’t been the case. As a result, the Board was one of the nominees for the Environmental
Stewardship Award in Thunder Bay. “We’ve received a lot of positive feedback, particularly
from our parent community acknowledging what we’ve done in terms of the health and safety
wellness component, not only for the students, but for the staff,” says De Faveri.

“As a school board we take seriously the whole notion of ‘what does environmental stewardship
really mean?’” says De Faveri. The Board was prepared to bear the extra costs until
manufacturers began to offer greener alternatives, a value stemming from the belief that we all
have a responsibility to be good stewards of the planet.

TECHNOLOGY

All of the schools are connected to and part of Orion, an educational network that connects
universities, colleges and school boards. The schools use laptop and desktop computers and
the secondary schools use interactive white boards. “We just completed a yearlong technology
review, which will give us a clearer direction in terms of where we need to go,” says De Faveri.
The Board hopes to improve accessibility with the creation of wireless hotspots at all of the
schools.

Teachers and the administration rely on Microsoft-based software and Cognos data warehouse
software. “Part of our challenge will be to streamline and identify the programs that we need to
have in place that are critical and eliminate some that are outdated or have outlived their shelf
life,” says De Faveri . We are also looking at our own in-house tools to provide us with this data.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Board focuses on emerging trends in education and continually seeks to meet the needs
of the students. To address the unique concerns of Aboriginal and First Nations students, the
Board placed counsellors onsite and enhanced relationships with the tribal communities. “It’s
about being forward-thinking and proactive,” says DeFaveri. “The biggest thing for us is
to continue to monitor enrolment trends and look at putting in place recruitment –retention
strategies that are based on success and satisfaction of our parents and students,” says De
Faveri.