For any parents who are interested in attending the OAPCE Conference in Niagara Falls on Friday, May 14th and Saturday, May 15th, 2010, TAPCE is willing to cover reasonable expenses on an as required basis. TAPCE will cover the accommodation expense at Ramada Inn, Niagara Falls, as well as the parking expense for five attendees on a first come, first served basis.

CPIC has offered to cover, on a first come, first served basis, mileage and registration to attend the Conference.

For further details and to register, go to www.oapce.on.ca   

If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to contactus@tapce.ca

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The Toronto Association of Parents in Catholic Education would like to extend warm Christmas and Holiday greetings to the families, staff, superintendents, the trustees, the Director of Education, Ms. Anne Perron and the Supervisor, Mr. Richard Alway.

Family always comes first, and TAPCE supports learning in the home as a priority equally as important as the learning done in the school setting.  We encourage everyone to be involved and be interested. When your child sees you around their school with that attitude, it makes them feel positive and safe at school.  Most of all, we will continue to work will all our partners to INCREASE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A WONDERFUL 2010,

President                             Vice-President                                Treasurer           

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Welcome back everyone!  Hope you had a happy, safe and restful summer.

On behalf of the Toronto Association for Parents in Catholic Education (TAPCE), I would like to welcome you all as we look forward to working together during this school year. This past year, the volunteer parents of TAPCE delivered valuable training to parents through our CSAC workshops; updated our website (www.tapce.ca) to be more user-friendly and to address parent-related issues; continued to work with a single point of contact at the TCDSB (our liaison); as well, achieved non-profit and charitable status.

This year promises to be exciting and challenging. Certainly it is great to see our children to move through our system, learning and developing. As parents, we will be faced with a few key issues this school year. Foremost in our minds, is the issue of the Board supervision, particularly the appointment of a new Supervisor, Mr. Richard Alway, and what that might entail for us. Mr. Alway’s mandate is to build on the positive accomplishments of his predecessors, Mr. Hartmann and Mr. Forma, and to establish a new governance model for the Board which will help to refocus the role of the Board Trustees, support increased student achievement, increased accountability and transparency, good governance, financial sustainability and increased public confidence.

TAPCE will continue to remain abreast of the activities and decisions at the Board and monitor any possible affect on our children. We need to be both proactive and reactive. TAPCE looks forward to working with Mr. Alway in the very near future to offer our input into the formation of the governance model and to offer our support in any way possible.

Over the past year, TAPCE has been delivering information and training directly to CSACs through our “TAPCE Road Show”.  If you are interested in hosting a 15 minute TAPCE Road Show at the beginning of one of your CSAC meetings this year, we ask that you contactus@tapce.ca to put us on your agenda.  We have applied to Revenue Canada and look poised to receive our ability to issue tax receipts. This will enable us to carry out fundraising to afford us the ability to offer more support to TCDSB parents.

We encourage you to appoint a TAPCE liaison representative at your Annual General CSAC Meeting. Your TAPCE representative will be able to attend our monthly meetings, participate in the roundtable discussions on issues which affect all our students and receive valuable information to bring back to your CSAC. We also remind you of the upcoming CSAC Conference at the CEC on November 14, 2009, and we invite you to visit our website for more information on this event.

As parents, we all need to be well informed of the ongoing issues surrounding the education of our children. Only if we work together, united and strong, can we hope to continue to nurture the gift of Catholic education.

I look forward to working with you on behalf of TAPCE during the 2009-2010 year.

Sincerely,

God Bless,

Robert Selvadurai

TAPCE President

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The Toronto Association of Parents in Catholic Education (TAPCE) is encouraged by the appointment of a new Supervisor, of the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB),   Mr. Richard Always on 24Aug09 effective 27Aug09. It is seen as a positive step forward to restoring public confidence in the Board. In addition the recognition of the previously elected, Chair of the Board of Trustee, Ms Angela Kennedy, is considered  a good first step in restoring an accountable and transparent governance structure.

Mr Alway’s  mandate to build on the positive accomplishments of his predecessors, Mr. Hartmann and Mr. Forma, and to establish a new governance model for the Board will help to refocus the role of the Board Trustees to support increased student achievement, increased accountability and transparency, good governance, financial sustainability and increased public confidence. 

The appointment of a new supervisor is also seen as a fine-tuning step in enacting Bill 177 – Student Achievement and School Board Governance Act. With Final consultation on this bill coming to a close the last wek of august, many implications of the change are coming to light in the TCDSB supervision case. Parents are concerns both with the seeming absence of accountability of the supervisors and removal of checks and balances to ensure ratepayers interests are appropriately implemented through elected officials such as Trustees. 

In addition, TAPCE wishes to express optimism that Ms. Angela Kennedy has been recognized by the Ministry as the Board Chair of Trustees. The expectation set by important steps such as this is a positive development towards helping to restore public confidence in the Trustees and the Board. The efforts of the Trustees to address the problems identified in the audit conducted by the Ministry are believed to be under reported.

TAPCE would like to offer its sincere thanks to Mr. Norbert Hartmann and Mr. Norm Forma for their commitment to the TCDSB during their appointment and the many accomplishments that were made towards restoring public confidence.  The efforts of the previous supervisory team are believed to have brought the Board closer to financial sustainability. However some concerns remain on the processes used to achieve this. It is hoped that certain decisions imposed in the 2009-2010 budget may yet be altered in the implementation stage of the budget in response to negative implications that may emerge. It is also hoped that the legacy of the outgoing supervisor team will prove to be an effective catalyst in involving more stakeholders in decision making.

TAPCE looks forward to working with Mr. Alway in the very near future to provide its input into the formation of the governance model and to offer its support in any way possible. TAPCE will be calling on the new Supervisor, the Chair of the Trustee and all Trustees to increase accountability and transparency. 

Sincerely

Dan Barrett /  Vice  President
Toronto Association of Parents in Catholic Education
Tapce.Committee@gmail.com

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The relationship between the Principal and the school council is critical to the level of engagement and involvement in the school community. As in past years, TAPCE will be recognizing those principals who have made a positive impact on their school communities which resulted in the enhanced performance of the school’s students.

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The "Board" will be decidied to adopt the proposed 2009-2010 budget without change at its 24Jun09 meeting. The current proposal is viewed by some parents as a deficit reducing budget. a total debt reduction of $5,000,000,000 is expected over 2 years. The operating budget of the TCDSB was balanced last year and a portion of the debt was paid down. This budget proposes a larger debt reduction through a "focused delivery" approach that involves the centralization of special education. This has resulted in the loss of the Special Eduaction teacher at some schools. In addition some Education Assistants have been removed from schools. 
The consultation process initially planned for 5 weeks was extended briefly to allow for feedback. The delegations received on 17Jun09 raised concerns on the loss of existing programs that had proven their value as well as a general sense of uncertainty on the direction the board was taking. The absence of response to concerns raised was also cited as problematic.
With the written delegations submitted on the 19Jun09 the consultation process formally closed. TAPCE as well as other parent groups called on the Minister to help the TCDSB in the same measure it has helped the TDSB. It is hoped that the Ministry will take into consideration the inadequacies of the funding formula to address some of the legacy issues still unresolved from the uploading of ratepayers taxes to the centralized system. It is also beleived the the debt reduction path taken by the supervisory team can be changed to mitigate the impact on the most vulnerable student and families.
Below delegations /responses shared for your consideration:
tapce-letter-to-the-minister-re-tcdsb-budget
presentation-by-sylvia-menezes-tcdsb-meeting-june-17-public
written-delegation-to-the-supervisor-for-19jun09

Some parents are expressing dismay at the lack of responsiveness from the Supervisory Team. To some, it appears that the silencing of Trustees has turned into a vendetta at the expense of our children. Certain parents who took time out to deliver oral presentations on the 17th and/or written delegations by the 19th now view that process as a farce. The "Board’s" announced cancellation of the Arrowsmith program for students with learning disabilities is particularly troubling. These parents were told at the delegation evening to contact their principal in September to make arrangements for programming and placement.

The budget issue has been referred to CPIC to address parent concerns by a Ward Representative. It is hoped that this body will be able to address the matter at its next meeting in September. In the meantime, TAPCE will be pursuing the matter with the Ministry. We will be calling on OAPCE and our other education partners to assist in addressing any negative implications of the budget approval process and how this decision is implemented.

See Press Release & Article from Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/article/656311

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At the May meeting of TAPCE,  a summer study package by http://www.summeradvantage.ca/ was endorsed. This package was made exclusively for the Ontario curriculum. The books are intended to introduce students to concepts in the next higher grade using language and approaches from the completed grade. The focus on the Ontario curriculum can also provide parents with a quick reference for summer activities that can be a good experiential match for the upcoming year.

The books are available at chapters and mastermind… but are less expensive if sold through the school. Parents can save between $1-$4 dollars per book.

If the school CSAC pursues this initiative it can get up to $3 per book sold with a minimum of 25 books ordered. The resources also includes EQAO test and study packs that might also be a good resource for teachers students and parents for next years .

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On 7Apr09 TAPCE sent a welcoming letter to New Ward 8 Trustee, Ms Mary Ann Robilard. TAPCE-welcome-to-MAR The appointment is seen as an opportunity to enhance the Trustees ability to cooperate and move toward the restoration of the Board.

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