Did you miss our Board Meeting on April 14, 2020? Not to worry, here are highlights from the meeting. Watch Full Meeting on YouTube.
Ottawa Catholic School Board Appoints New Director
The Ottawa Catholic School Board approved the appointment of Tom D’Amico as its incoming Director of Education and Secretary-Treasurer effective August 2020.
Mr. D’Amico was appointed to the position by the Board of Trustees at the April 14, Board Meeting. He has served in the role of Associate Director of Education with the Ottawa Catholic School Board for the last five years.
Update: Catholic Education Foundation of Ottawa (CEFO)
The Catholic Education Foundation of Ottawa (CEFO) is a registered charity whose primary focus is to raise funds to help alleviate poverty for students in the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB).
The need is great in our community. Since March 23, the foundation has provided over $70,155 in emergency donations to 254 OCSB families who required food, shelter and medicine, among other things.
Here is one family you have helped!
“A single Mom of 4 and 5-year-old girls can no longer work because her children are at home, and the cleaning service she works for is closed as a result of COVID19. Your donation put food on her family’s table.”
Designing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Donating PPEs
It takes a village to raise a child is an African proverb that means an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. OCSB staff lived out the promise of this proverb over the past two weeks as they collected PPE for the Ottawa Hospital, Shepherds of Good Hope and Ottawa Public Health.
Thank you!
Caretakers, Science and Tech Teachers, EA’s, OA’ s and Principals collected the equipment under the direction of Chantal Mazzarole (Coordinator of Health and Safety). Norm Labossiere made it his mission to get the supplies to the hospitals and community organizations.
Total Donations
- 989 Boxes of 100 gloves (all different sizes)
- 39 Face shields
- 120 disposable gowns
- 315 N95 face masks
- 28 boxes of disposable masks
- 90 chemical goggles
- 6 containers of wipes
- 35 safety glasses
- Oxivir TB liquid (Hospital Grade Disinfectant)
- Purell
Mental Health Supports Update
The OCSB Mental Health Team will continue to support the mental health and well being of our students in a variety of ways, including making phone calls, conducting virtual meetings and providing virtual counselling. We will adapt our services as required to ensure our students feel listened to, supported and encouraged as we all deal with impacts of COVID19 Pandemic. Our goal will be to continue to connect with students, their families and outside organizations designed to assist our students in need. The full report can is available on page 24 of the April 14 Board Meeting Agenda.
S&P Global Ratings
The Ottawa Catholic School Board’s S&P Global Rating of A+/Stable outlook is unchanged from that of last year and represents the highest rating possible presently for school boards in the Province of Ontario.
OCSB Chair, Mark Mullan Thanks Staff and Parents
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I want to express our thanks and gratitude to all OCSB staff. As people of faith, we are all focused on working through these difficult challenges with clarity, compassion and conviction.
To our educators, support staff and union members, we understand we are asking you to go above and beyond in your efforts to support our students. We know with confidence, we can do this because we can always rely on your creativity, flexibility, and judgment.
Thank you to our Senior Team, their departments our principals and vice-principals for their critical work behind the scenes to ensure student and staff learning continues. Thank you to our union leaders for their collaboration and support of student success and wellbeing. Also, I would like to thank our two student trustees for their work in keeping our students updated and making sure that their needs are addressed.
We are also forever grateful to our parent community, who have shown understanding, patience, and cooperation to our teachers and support staff. You have proved over and over again; we are partners in our shared goal of educating your children and keeping everyone safe. School is happening differently now, and we are all “building the plane as we fly.” I am so grateful we are flying this plane as co-pilots.
As Saint, Mother Teresa said, “I can do things you cannot; you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.”