| Toronto Catholic District School Board | |
|---|---|
| Board office location | 80 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Board identifier | B67059 |
| Number of schools | 168 elementary schools 31 high schools 2 arts schools[1] |
| 2011-2012 budget (CAD $ millions) | $1,050.0[2] |
| Number of students | 61,016 elementary students 30,625 secondary students[3] |
| Chair of the Board | Ann Andrachuk |
| Director of Education | Bruce Rodrigues |
| Elected Trustees | 12 |
| http://www.tcdsb.org/ | |
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) is the publicly-funded Catholic school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York.[4] It is one of the two English boards of education in the City of Toronto, serving the former municipalities of Scarborough, North York, York, East York, Toronto and Etobicoke. With over 91,000 students, the TCDSB is one of the largest school boards in Canada.
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Prior to 1998, the Metropolitan Separate School Board was the governing body of all publicly-funded Roman Catholic schools in Toronto. In 1998 the board was reorganised, resulting in the separation of English and French language schools, the latter of which are now part of the Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud. The resulting board was named the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board governs 201 schools in the Toronto area: 30 secondary schools, 168 elementary schools, and 3 schools that combine both secondary and elementary grades.[1]
| Ward | Trustee | Ward Name |
|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | Peter Jakovcic | Etobicoke |
| Ward 2 | Ann Andrachuk | Etobicoke |
| Ward 3 | Sal Piccininni | North York |
| Ward 4 | Patrizia Bottoni | North York |
| Ward 5 | Mario Rizzo | North York |
| Ward 6 | Frank D'Amico | York |
| Ward 7 | John Del Grande | Scarborough/North York |
| Ward 8 | Tobias Enverga Jr. | Scarborough |
| Ward 9 | Jo-Ann Davis | Toronto |
| Ward 10 | Barbara Poplawski | Toronto |
| Ward 11 | Angela Kennedy | East York/Toronto |
| Ward 12 | Nancy Crawford | Scarborough |
| Student Trustee | Natalie Rizzo |
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The following service providers have been contracted by the school board:[7]
Uniforms are mandatory for students at the secondary level and elementary starting in the Fall 2011.[8] In 2010 some elementary schools starting implementing use of uniforms. [9]
The TCDSB has 12 wards and 12 trustees and 1 student trustee (who is not entitled to vote). The Chair of the Board, the Vice-Chair and the Honourary Treasurer are elected at the inaugural meeting of the Board, and serve for one year. As of December 2010, Ann Andrachuk serves as chair and Jo-Ann Davis serves as vice-chair. Trustees are paid $18,500 a year in salary and can claim up to $18,000 for expenses.
While Catholic high schools are funded by the provincial crown, making them open to any students who wish to attend, elementary schools do not have to enroll non-Catholic students. Many argue that the practice of fully funding separate schools exclusively for the Catholic faith is discriminatory to other religions (i.e.the United Nations has twice chastised the province for this policy). Supporters of the current Catholic education system point out that it has existed, in some form or another, since Confederation, and that the Constitution Act, 1867, enshrines the right to government-funded religious education to all Catholics. The opposition, however, argues that this is an appeal to tradition and point to other provinces in Canada which amended the constitution to abolish Catholic school funding.
Recently, the issue of government funding for religious schools has become a major political issue (see Ontario general election, 2007), with PC Party Leader John Tory supporting an extension of funding to all religious schools, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals and Howard Hampton's NDP supporting the status quo, and Frank de Jong's Greens alone calling for elimination of public funding for all religious schools (including Catholic Schools).
The board was embroiled in controversy in May 2008 when a report commissioned by the provincial government uncovered spending abuses by certain trustees, including charges for meals, promotional materials, and prohibited benefits.[10][11] Provincial supervisor Norbert Hartmann was appointed to oversee administration of the board as a result.[12]