TAPCE FAQ, History, Bylaws.

Toronto Association of Parents in Catholic Education

TAPCE (the Toronto Association of Parents in Catholic Education) is the local affiliate of your Provincial Parents’ Association (the Ontario Association of Parents in Catholic Education - OAPCE), an Association of dedicated parent volunteers, with a history of over 65 years of working to preserve and enhance publicly funded Catholic education in Ontario.TAPCE is your association, established to respond to and represent the interests and concerns of parents/guardians who have children enrolled in Toronto’s publicly funded Catholic schools. Our focus includes all aspects of our children’s education: spiritual, academic, health and safety, as well as other issues which may arise out of your concerns.

President’s Annual Report 2008

The last year has had a whirlwind of activities. A great deal has been accomplished. I am going to review the accomplishments and how we can build on those accomplishments in the future.Since our last AGM, there has been a lot of activity by TAPCE parent volunteers.TAPCE parents are participating in the in the Catholic Parental Involvement Committee (CPIC) at TCDSB. One of our TAPCE members stands as Vice-Chair, and one of our members attends representing TAPCE.The current government is putting a lot of emphasis on Character Development, which our system has been teaching all along (Graduate Expectations). This further emphasises that not only is Character Development about student achievement academically, but also the development of the child’s whole self. To this end, the TCDSB setup a committee (in which TAPCE was asked to participate) to facilitate a day of consultation, communication and reflection on Faith and Character Development. The event was held December 6, 2007. The participants included a student, parent, teacher and principal, as well, a clergy representative wherever possible. The response was overwhelming. There were over 1200 attendees at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the event was truly spectacular. How proud were the parents to see our young people endorse and develop these characteristics in our system. January 2008 launches the ‘virtue of the month’, at each school in the TCDSB which was voted on by each school present at the convention. There will be information and demonstrations of the selected virtues throughout the Board.A number of TAPCE attended the 2007 OAPCE AGM/Conference held in Peterborough titled Empowering Catholic Learning Communities. It was very well attended and had many good speakers and workshops. The speakers included Mark Kielburger on the topic of Me to We. Mark and his brother are the founders of “FREE THE CHILDREN”. OAPCE has set up a committee to work with Mark Kielburger and his organization on a project in Africa as a result. At the AGM, parents whose career as Chartered Accountants, and other parents in financially related positions commented and overwhelmingly applauded OAPCE in its ability to work with parents throughout the province on their relatively small budget. The 20078’s AGM/Conference will be held in Hamilton and I encourage everyone to attend. The dates are April 25-27, 2008. Also…mark your calendar for 2009’s 70th anniversary for OAPCE, which will be a huge event held in Toronto!Throughout the year (primarily over the summer), the TAPCE executive and communications chair, met to plan and accomplish tasks related to the incorporation of TAPCE as well as seeking out funding for the various programs and events planned. The incorporation is completed and non-profit status process and is in consultation with a CA firm to complete the charitable status designation. We hope for the approval which will enable us to accomplish a lot more with these additional tools at our disposal.TAPCE has met with the 2007 TCDSB Chair and Director of the Board to outline its plans. Subsequently we met with the Mark Fenwick and Mark Petit of the Curriculum and Accountability Office to submit our plans as to how the office could contribute to our success.2008 also introduced two well respected individuals to the positions of Chair and Director for the TCDSB. Catherine Leblanc-Miller and Les Nemes have been selected as the replacement for Oliver Carroll our Chair of the Board and our retiring Director of Education Kevin Kobus. TAPCE has known both of these individuals for some time and TAPCE plans to meet with each of them to discuss on a planned approach to address key issues. We believe that we will work just as effectively with these two new leaders. Congratulations to both.Our Communications committee led by S. Walker has been very active this year and has accomplished some great things. The commissioning service for 2008 held on November 26th was a great success. Led by Florinda Cesario with Maryann Virelli and Darlene Canton leading the Principal’s award, We had the best attendance yet since its inception five years ago. This year, we were privileged to have the Minister of Education -Kathleen Wynn attend the service to congratulate the winner of the Principal of Excellence award. This year’s winner was Pasquale Tari from Blessed John XXIII. This award is receiving very positive recognition and appreciation by the administrators in general and principals in particular. We would also like to thank the Trustee attendees and OAPCE’s President Brian Evoy who travelled from Kingston to attend and speak. A new contact address was launched in September for parents to e mail questions and concerns to – contactus@tapce.ca. The new website is also close to launch. Look for it in early February 2008.The By-law committee chair D. Barrett and his committee has completed a great deal of work this year updating the by-laws under which we operate today. The Lobby Committee is considered closed in the absence of a motion to the contrary.We have held some other great events such as the CSAC workshop, speakers such as Ron Morrish on Real Discipline and we plan to deliver more in 2008.I’d like to thank all our committee chairs and members for the hard work that they have put into their perspective committees. The accomplishments are tremendous.I’d like to take the opportunity also to thank our outgoing Vice-President Lydia Vendrasco for her continued leadership and work.Ladies and gentlemen, the message that I have carried since first elected to this position is the same. We have accomplished a great deal this past year but we still have more work to do. Not only to preserve our system but also to promote it. To do this we need all Catholic parents to get actively involved, to engage in promoting the betterment of our system. Let’s make our best effort to get the message out, especially to those parents that are not yet or marginally involved. TAPCE is a parent organization. Parents are key to the triad of Parish, School and Home. TAPCE and OAPCE exist because we feel strongly about our publicly funded Catholic system in Ontario. It is important that we understand why we and non Catholics send our children to this system and then help to not only preserve but to strengthen it. This will ensure that the system is there for future generations. We are proud to have a rich history of 170 years in Ontario.TAPCE works and continues to work because of the involvement and efforts of everyone. It should not be dependent on a single individual or a small group within it. It requires the active participation of all of you. I hope that you will bring your ideas and issues and the commitment energy to work on them. Together we can do great things especially with help from OAPCE, TCDSB and other partners.I strongly encourage the parents to understand the bigger picture and see how you can help. Attend the upcoming workshops and speakers; ensure that your municipal taxes are directed to the Catholic system i.e. that your voter registration lists you as a Catholic rate payer as well as your parents, and relatives; attend our monthly meetings and bring information to/from your CSACs.As a parent or guardian in this system we need to be thankful, to celebrate, to bring awareness to ourselves, our stakeholders and the greater community, and we also need to preserve it by doing what we must. We are here for our children and the values that our system gives their character formation, teaching them about social justice not just academics. This is what the Premier and the minister of education are trying to infuse into the system. Well we already have it. PROMOTE IT.Working with you for our children in The Publicly Funded Catholic Education SystemGod BlessRobert SelvaduraiPresident, TAPCE