St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School

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St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School
Address
1045 Upper Paradise Road Hamilton, Ontario, L9B 2N4, Canada
Information
Superintendent	Jackie Bajus
Area trustee	Sergio Manchia (Ward 8)
Principal	Mr. John Valvasori
School type	High school
Grades	9-12
Motto	""Praestantia Scholastica , Praestantia Religiosa, Praestantia Athletica"
Mascot	Tommy the Knight
Homepage	http://www.stmcss.org/index.htm

Saint Thomas More Catholic Secondary School is one of 7 Public-Catholic High Schools in Hamilton, Ontario under the jurisdiction of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board. The school is located in the suburbs of Hamilton, serving the south-west of said city as well as parts of Glanbrook and Ancaster (communities in the Greater Hamilton Area). The school's Latin moto is:

"Praestantia Scholastica , Praestantia Religiosa, Praestantia Athletica"

STM, as it is affectionately called by students and the surrounding community is the largest school in south-western Hamilton, holding over 1900 students. Saint Thomas More graduatates approx. 300 students a year with around 60% of them going onto University and College. The school's 150 member staff are involved in the school's numerous activities, sports and associations.

Contents 1 Athletics 2 Student Council 3 Activities 4 Administration 5 Other 6 External References

[edit] Athletics

STM has been extremely successful in athletics this school year, the most notable victory being the school's senior football team's win in the OFSAA championship. The school prides itself on it's athletics as it has over 30 teams that have each won a championship at least once in the school's history. The biggest teams are the Football, Basketball, Hockey and Soccer teams. STM also has many teams and clubs not found in most schools like Girl's Hockey and Slo-Pitch teams as well as wrestling and field-hockey teams.

[edit] Student Council

STM's student council is an essential part of the school's community, electing students from every kind of social background, academic level and age. Student Council elections at STM are often high-spirited events starting weeks before the vote, with the most activity occurring in the final week, including speeches, debates and general campaigning. The current President of the STM Student Council, Natalie Raso, stood unopposed in last year's election of Friday, May 19th, 2006. The Vice-President, Tim Lysecki, also stood unopposed. A good number of the council stood unopposed including Katie Power (Treasurer) and Alfredo Petrone (Recording Officer). Some races were more filled then others, for example, the race for Grade 11 Representative had 4 candidates, but was simple to predict, while the races for social convenor and spiritual director, had only 2 candidates and were extremely hard to predict. Most races were very tight, some being won by a margin of less then 20 votes. This year's student council elections are expected to take place before or on Friday, May 18th.

[edit] Activities

Saint Thomas More has a host of unique and popular activities. The school is equipped with a state of the art television broadcast studio (CMOR) where the morning announcements are broadcast from. STM also puts on Christmas and Year-End videos often in congunction with the student council and the various teams and clubs that have won championships and awards through the year. STM also has Concert, Jazz and Guitar Bands as well as a Choir that have all won awards throughout Canada and the United States. New clubs and organizations started for the 2006-2007 year including the Game Programming Club and the Debate Society. Because of the school's Catholic background, their are many different social-activism clubs not found in most other schools. STM has organized Hallowe'en for Hunger where students go door to door collecting canned goods for the Hamilton Mountain Neighbour to Neighbour Center. The school also has Christmas Miracle campaign where student's in individual classes purchase gifts for the less-fortunate in Hamilton. Adhearing more closely to the school's Catholicity, there are Pilgrimages to Lourdes every two years and there is an active Pro-Life Group on campass.

[edit] Administration

Because of STM's large size, there are three Vice-Principal's (J. Pusztay, T. Hogan and S. Fortino-Bozzo) who have jurisdiction over certain students depending on last name (A-F, J-N and O-Z). The school also has one principal, J. Valvaori.

[edit] Other

The school's uniform policy has been the topic of constant debate from both sides. Both students and parents make up both sides, either for or against the uniforms. STM's Debating Society is planning to hold a debate over the matter sometime later in the year.

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[edit] External References

• http://www.stmcss.org/index.htm
• http://www.hwcdsb.edu.on.ca/