Toronto Catholic District School Board formerly known as Metropolitan Separate School Board (MSSB) | |
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Location | |
80 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, M2N 6E8, Canada Canada | |
District information | |
Motto | "In God’s Image: Growing in Knowledge, with Justice and Hope." "Imagine the Possibilities" |
Established | April 2, 1953 (MSSB) January 2, 1998 (current form) |
Superintendents | 8 (areas) 1 (Student Success and Adult Learning Centres) |
Schools | 165 elementary schools 29 secondary schools 2 combined schools 2 alternative schools [1] |
Budget | ~CA$1.1B (2021-2022) [2] |
District ID | B67059 |
Other information | |
Chair of the Board | Nancy Crawford |
Director of Education | Dr. Brendan Browne |
Elected trustees | 12 |
Student trustees | David Beshai Ashionyedue Joygold Goodluck |
Website | www |
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999 [3] ) is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. [4] It is one of the two English boards of education serving the city of Toronto.
The board was founded on April 2, 1953 as the Metropolitan Separate School Board (MSSB) when nearby separate school districts were amalgamated as an singular separate school board in Metro Toronto. In addition to English-language schools, the board also operated a handful of French-language schools by the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Grand Toronto (CECGT), the board's French unit. In 1998, the MSSB was renamed and reorganized into the Toronto Catholic District School Board leaving the board with anglophone schools while the francophone schools that were previously operated by CECGT were amalgamated with nearby French school boards in the region to form Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud.
With more than 84,000 students, [1] the TCDSB is one of the largest school boards in Canada, and is the largest publicly funded Catholic school board in the world. [5]
On April 2, 1953, the Metropolitan Separate School Board (French : Les Conseil des écoles catholiques du Grand Toronto), officially known as the Metropolitan Toronto Roman Catholic Separate School Board (MTRCSSB) [6] was formed as the governing body of all publicly funded Roman Catholic schools in Toronto through the merger of several separate boards in Metro Toronto. The merger was passed through Bill 37, the Metropolitan Separate School Board Act. [7]
At its peak in 1990, the board operated 185 anglophone and six francophone elementary schools and 41 anglophone and one francophone secondary schools with 100,000 total students. The MSSB took over seven high schools transferred from the Metropolitan Toronto School Board (MTSB) in 1988, with one of them being a francophone Catholic high school, the institution that has been lost since 1968. [7] [8] The MSSB was the largest school board in Canada at the time.
In 1997, as a result of Bill 104, the Fewer School Boards Act, the boards were reorganized resulting in the separation of English and French language schools. The MSSB became known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 and renamed itself to the Toronto Catholic District School Board in 1999 while the former Section de langue française unit became part of the new French-language Separate District School Board No. 64 which later became Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud.
The board headquarters were located on Duke Street, then Jarvis Street, and the MSSB moved its operations in 1964 to 150 Laird Drive, the former headquarters of Durant Motors and later, Imperial Oil. [9] In 1982, the board moved to its current administrative headquarters and offices on 80 Sheppard Avenue East. [10] The school board also had the offices for Section de langue française on Drewry Avenue, opened in 1989 in the former Lewis S. Beattie Secondary School, though it has since been occupied by Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir as its administrative offices.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board mission statement that nurtures "the faith development and academic excellence of our Catholic learning community through the love of God, neighbour, and self." The vision encourages learning communities of the Board to follow God's Image that grows in "Knowledge, with Justice and Hope." [11]
The school board is governed by 12 elected trustees who serve for a four-year term. Each year one secondary school student is selected to serve on the board as a student trustee (who is not entitled to vote). The chair of the board, the vice-chair, and the honorary treasurer are elected at the inaugural meeting of the board, and serve for one year. As of April 2024, Nancy Crawford serves as chair, and Markus de Domenico serves as vice-chair. Trustees are paid $18,500 a year in salary, and can claim up to $18,000 for expenses. Prior to the 1998 separation of French-language schools, the Metropolitan Separate School Board had three French language seats. [12] The policies of the Board are administered by the Director of Education and designates.
There are more than 91,000 students serving over 195 Catholic schools, and represent close to 475,000 Catholic school supporters in all of Toronto. The TCDSB also has staff consisting of 6,000 teachers, 2,800 support staff, 360 principals and vice principals, and 200 administrators. [13]
In addition, the Board operates standing three committees: the Student Achievement and Well Being, Catholic Education and Human Resources, Corporate Affairs, Strategic Planning and Property, & Governance Framework. [14]
As of 2024, the trustee boundaries are aligned with the municipal wards, which was realigned to match with the federal and provincial ward boundaries.
Ward | Trustee | Municipal Ward | Federal and Provincial Riding | TDSB Corresponding Ward | Notes |
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1 | Joseph Martino | 1 | Etobicoke North | 1 |
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2 | Markus De Domenico | 2 | Etobicoke Centre | 2 | |
3 | Ida Li Preti | 7 | Humber River—Black Creek | 4 | |
4 | Teresa Lubinski | 3, 4 | Etobicoke-Lakeshore Parkdale-High Park | 3, 7 | |
5 | Maria Rizzo | 6, 8, 10 | York Centre Eglinton-Lawrence Willowdale | 5, 8, 12 | |
6 | Frank D'Amico | 9 | Davenport | 9 | |
7 | Mike Del Grande | 21, 22 | Scarborough Centre Scarborough-Agincourt | 17, 20 | |
8 | Garry Tanuan | 23, 25 | Scarborough North Scarborough-Rouge Park | 21, 22 | |
9 | Norm Di Pasquale | 10, 11, 12, 13 | Spadina-Fort York University-Rosedale Toronto-St. Paul's Toronto Centre | 8, 9, 10 | |
10 | Daniel Di Giorgio | 5 | York South-Weston | 7, 9 | |
11 | Angela Kennedy | 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 | Toronto-Danforth Don Valley West Don Valley East Don Valley North Beaches-East York | 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 | |
12 | Nancy Crawford | 20, 24 | Scarborough Southwest Scarborough-Guildwood | 18, 19 |
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Student Trustee(s) | JoyGold Goodluck (Father Henry Carr) David Beshai (St. John Paul II) | --- | --- | --- |
Italics indicate the trustee remains active. [15]
The current director of education is Dr. Brendan Browne, who was appointed in 2020. Prior to his appointment, Browne served as the central superintendent for the Toronto District School Board covering schools in most of the former North York and Scarborough.
The Angel Foundation for Learning (AFL) is a TCDSB-organized charity that was founded on April 23, 1987, as the Metropolitan Toronto Catholic Education Foundation (MTCEF, French : Fondation métropolitaine d'éducation catholique de Toronto) to serve and support the needs of the education of younger Roman Catholic students in the City of Toronto.
Like the TDSB-built schools, 70% of the TCDSB stock of school buildings outside of the old City of Toronto were built after World War II and during the 1950s. These are typically Mid-Century modern in style with two to three storey brick facade and large double hung windows albeit from the cross attached. Some are built in Tudor Gothic style ones in the late 1800s.
The following service providers have been contracted by the school board: [21]
Uniforms are mandatory for students at the secondary level and elementary starting in the fall 2011. [22] In 2010 some elementary schools started implementing use of uniforms. [22]
In 1988, the MSSB ruled that public separate high schools are required to wear uniforms. At the time, all of the high schools in Scarborough except for Newman had uniforms. Some trustees anticipated protests from parents and students from Newman. [23]
As of 2020 [update] , all TCDSB elementary students must wear a uniform of a white or navy blue top, and navy blue bottoms. This is enforced in special programs such as the gifted program and ME.
While Catholic high schools are funded by the provincial government, making them open to any students who wish to attend, elementary schools do not have to enrol non-Catholic students. Many argue that the practice of fully funding separate schools exclusively for the Catholic faith is discriminatory to other religions (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 one 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. It is up to the school principal whether or not non-Catholics are enrolled.
Recently, the issue of government funding for religious schools has become a major political issue (see 2007 Ontario general election), 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 first strikes occurred on April 5–11, 1986 when 6,000 teachers of the Metro Separate School Board went on strike with over 100,000 students affected. [24] [25]
From August 2002, the Toronto Catholic elementary teachers were without a contract and imposed work to rule beginning February 2003. With stalled negotiations, the TCDSB officially locked out the teachers on May 16, 2003, and the strike lasted 12 days which left 69,000 students affected. [26] The lockout ended when the Ontario government enacted back-to-work legislation on June 3, 2003. [27]
Conflict arose once again when the TCDSB elementary teachers imposed work to rule once more in 2016. [28]
Again in 2021, during the middle of a pandemic, teachers imposed work to rule, leaving report cards blank and ordering their members to not help in distribution of their students personal belongs in June 2021, without resolution in sight as of August 2021. [29]
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. [30] [31] Provincial supervisor Norbert Hartmann was appointed to oversee administration of the board as a result. [32]
During a school trip organized by Holy Spirit Catholic School's eighth-grade students, vice-principal Stephen Patel threw a shoe at 14-year-old student Ian Goulbourne, hitting him in the forehead while on an excursion in Montreal on the school bus on April 24, 2013. [33] Goulborune was taken to the Montreal Children's Hospital to be treated and Patel was sent home the next day on the Via Rail train on paid leave by the TCDSB while it investigated such incident. [34]
A few weeks later, Ferdinando Marrello, a teacher at Monsignor Fraser College was charged with allegations of assaulting a female student who was grabbed by the throat and punched in the face. [35]
In August 2018, Gerry McGilly, 47-year-old former English teacher at Bishop Allen Academy was sentenced to 2–3 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to luring, making child pornography and sexual exploitation of his students, including three 17-year-old victims, dated between 2014 and 2017. [36] [37]
On May 1, 2019, Toronto Police formally charged 35-year-old Justin Iozzo, teacher of Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School of one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference that occurred in December 2016 when a student was assaulted on school property. Iozzo had been employed by the Board since 2012 and started his teaching career at Stella Maris and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Schools. [38] However, thirteen days later, Toronto Police arrested 36-year-old Brian Ross, a teacher and coach at Senator O'Connor College School, who is facing charges of sexual assault stemming from a string of incidents during the 2011–12 academic year including a 16-year-old female student being assaulted during his 10-year tenure at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School and another in March 2017. [39]
The TCDSB has a number of issues with the LGBT communities and the Roman Catholic education in Toronto.
In May 2013, two trustees, Gary Tanuan and John Del Grande, the son of Mike Del Grande, passed a motion to eliminate Gay-straight alliances in all TCDSB schools. The motion stated that the "Toronto Catholic District School Board schools shall have no Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs or similar." Tanuan's motion stemmed from a report for all anti-bullying clubs to adhere to the "Respecting Difference" report issued by the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association in January 2012. This report offered guidelines for Catholic schools that included calling groups like GSAs "Respecting Differences" clubs and avoiding discussions of sexual attraction, political activism and gender identity. [40]
However, in November 2020, the TCDSB imposed sanctions against Mike Del Grande over the LGBT2Q+ comments during the November 7, 2019 meeting for comparing homosexuality to bestiality, pedophilia and cannibalism. Del Grande violated the code of conduct for trustees even though he was acting within his role as a trustee to debate the motion. [41]
On January 8, 2021, the TCDSB removed the Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Youth Line, a phone peer support line for youth, from their online mental health resource list for students. The removal of YouthLine coincided the same time as when Joe Volpe ran an opinion piece in Corriere Canadese purporting that YouthLine is inappropriate. [42] YouthLine refuted Volpe's article, calling it "homophobic, transphobic, and racist." YouthLine reaffirmed that their anonymous services provide queer, transgender and questioning youth much needed information and resources. [43] Pride Toronto called TCDSB's decision "another example of systemic homophobia and transphobia that continues to run deep within the publicly-funded school board." [44] In May 2022, Youthline and the other defendants won their case in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and all of Volpe's charges against them were dropped. [45]
On May 6, 2021, the TCDSB voted to recognize June as Pride Month and the raising of the LGBT rainbow flag in all schools and board offices for the first time since the board's inception in 1953. The move comes after Halton Catholic District School Board rejected the vote on raising the gay flag while the Waterloo Catholic District School Board approved the raising of the rainbow flag a month prior. [46]
The official symbol of the Toronto Catholic District School Board was designed in 1969 by the internationally recognized design artist, Allan Fleming, who designed the Canadian National logo. It combines the cross, the anchor, and the heart representing the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. It is based on the cross and anchor symbol used by the early Christians in the catacombs, the added heart representing humanity. [47]
Bendale, also called Cedarbrae and Midland Park, is a residential neighbourhood in the eastern part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the former suburb of Scarborough. It is centred on the intersection of Lawrence Avenue East and Brimley Road. Its boundaries, as defined by the City, are Midland Avenue from Lawrence, north to Highway 401, east to McCowan, south to Lawrence, east to West Highland Creek, south-west along West Highland Creek, then follow several side streets parallel to the Creek, north to Midland Avenue. The area north of Ellesmere is typically considered the Scarborough City Centre district, and is not considered in this neighbourhood article.
Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts is a Catholic arts high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Admission to the school is granted through an audition process. Serving students from grade 7 to 12, it is one of three schools in the Toronto Catholic District School Board that is an elementary and secondary hybrid. The school has been consistently ranked as one of the top educational institutions in Ontario.
Francis Libermann Catholic High School is a Catholic secondary school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Agincourt neighbourhood of Scarborough, and part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, formerly the Metropolitan Separate School Board.
Education in Toronto is primarily provided publicly and is overseen by Ontario's Ministry of Education. The city is home to a number of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions. In addition to those institutions, the city is also home to several specialty and supplementary schools, which provide schooling for specific crafts or are intended to provide additional educational support.
Humbermede, often called Emery, is a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Humbermede, like many of the "Humber" neighbourhoods in the city, gets its name from the Humber River. It is bounded on the west by the Humber River, on the north by Finch Avenue West, on the east by the Highway 400 and on the south by Sheppard Avenue West.
York University Heights, also known as Northwood Park, is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of Toronto's northernmost neighbourhoods, located along the northern boundary of Steeles Avenue in the former city of North York. The neighbourhood is so named because it contains the main campus of York University. This area is most popular with immigrants of Italian and Chinese descent who have established communities in the area. It is located between Sheppard Avenue and Steeles Avenue east of Black Creek.
Amesbury or Brookhaven-Amesbury is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The neighbourhood is located in northern Toronto in the former suburb of North York. It is part of federal and provincial electoral district York South—Weston, and Toronto electoral wards 11: York South—Weston (West) and 12: York South—Weston (East).
Lawrence Manor is a neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This neighbourhood is bounded by Bathurst Street on the east, Highway 401 to the north, the Allen to the west, and Lawrence Avenue to the south. The western side of the area borders along Bathurst Heights and the large public housing project.
Clanton Park is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located in the district of North York, it is part of federal and provincial electoral district York Centre, and Toronto electoral wards 9: York Centre (West) and 10: York Centre (East). In 2016, it had a population of 16,472, a 12.7% rise from 2011.
Dorset Park is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the western part of the district of Scarborough. The neighbourhood is bordered by Highway 401 to the north, Midland Avenue to the east, Lawrence Avenue to the south, and Birchmount Road to the west. Kennedy Road runs along the neighbourhood's centre north and south and Ellesmere Road runs along the centre east and west. The area south of Lawrence Avenue, north of the hydro corridor, is known as McGregor Park and is often included as part of Dorset Park.
Rouge is a neighbourhood in the northeastern area of Toronto, Ontario, within the former city of Scarborough. It is Toronto's largest neighbourhood by surface area; however, unlike other neighbourhoods, most of its area remains undeveloped, as the neighbourhood is adjacent to Rouge National Urban Park.
Morningside, also known as Seven Oaks, is a suburban neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located to the north-east of downtown Toronto, in the suburb of Scarborough. Morningside is bordered by Highway 401 to the north, Morningside Avenue to the east, West Highland Creek and Lawrence Avenue to the south and Scarborough Golf Club Road to the west.
Eglinton East, historically known as Knob Hill, is a residential and commercial neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bounded by Stansbury Crescent, Citadel Drive, and West Highland Creek to the north, Midland Avenue to the west, the CNR rail line, Brimley Road, and Eglinton Avenue to the south, and Bellamy Road North to the east.
St. Joseph's Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School is a publicly funded all-girls secondary school located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1960 and is attached to the Sisters' motherhouse at Morrow Park. The Sisterhood was founded on October 15, 1650 in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, by Jean-Pierre Medaille, a French Jesuit.
Morningside Heights is a residential neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northeast corner of the city, in the district of Scarborough, just north of the neighbourhood of Malvern and west of Rouge Park and the Rouge. The subdivision, comprising approximately 750 acres (3.0 km2), was one of the last large tracts of undeveloped land within the City of Toronto, located between Finch Avenue East and Steeles Avenue East, from Tapscott Road to the Rouge River.
Maple Leaf is a neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the southwest of the North York district. Its approximate borders are Lawrence Avenue to the south, Culford Road to the west, Highway 401 to the north, and the CNR rail lines east of Keele Street to the east.
Wallace Emerson is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada situated north of Bloor Street between Dufferin Street to the east, the CPR railway lines to the north and the CPR railway lines to the west.
École secondaire catholique Monseigneur-de-Charbonnel ; known in English as Monsignor Charbonnel Catholic Secondary School is a French-language Catholic elementary and high school operated by the Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud (CSDCCS) in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
École secondaire catholique Père-Philippe-Lamarche, is a public separate French first language secondary school operated by the Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir and located on Eglinton Avenue, in the Toronto neighbourhood of Eglinton East. It is the first public francophone separate secondary school in Scarborough.
The current central office of the TCDSB, the Catholic Education Centre, opened in 1982.