GUELPH – School’s out for the summer, and the Upper Grand District School Board concluded the year with a final meeting on June 27.
Student and staff achievements
During the meeting director of education Peter Sovran highlighted achievements of students and staff.
Centre Wellington District High School (CWDHS) won a $5,000 Team Canada Olympic Day grant and a motivational speech from Canadian bobsleigh Olympian Cynthia Appiah, for empowering girls and gender-diverse students through new powerlifting and weightlifting programs.
The Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI) chamber choir performed Dreamweaver by composer Ola Gjeilo in New York City’s Carnegie Hall on June 18.
Over 150 students from Black student groups across the UGDSB partnered with the University of Guelph for a Black Brilliance conference, where they expressed Black joy through different art forms, including drama, dance, visual arts, and poetry.
The UGDSB’s principal of Indigenous education, Colinda Clyne, and the First Nations Métis Math Voices Project received the CBR Canada Excellence in Community Campus Research Award for their research regarding integrating an Indigenous focussed lens to the math curriculum.
South Guelph Secondary School
The board’s finances and facilities committee discussed the South Guelph Secondary School, including recognition of the school board’s sustainability effort.
The committee recommended staff investigate ways to reduce carbon emissions by investigating heat pumps, hybrid heating systems, and high efficiency traditional heating, and the board approved the recommendation.
Parent involvement
Trustee Martha MacNeil called the last parent involvement committee meeting of the year “robust.” Topics discussed include:
– the board’s new visual identity;
– recent events like empowerment day, Special Olympics, Pride Month, Indigenous Heritage Month, and the parent engagement event in April;
– options for allocating the surplus of about $30,000 from the Parents Reaching Out grant;
– highlights from the 2022-23 school year; and
– plans for the 2023-24 school year.
Other reports
Trustees also presented reports from the special education advisory committee, the audit committee, the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Education Council, and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.
In the report from the chair, Ralf Mesenbrink thanked students, families, guardians, staff, council, and trustees for a successful school year.
Sovran began the report from the director by noting there’s “so much to brag about in the 2022-23 school year.
“In fact, this report would take hours if I were to go through all of the accomplishments this year.”
Instead of describing them all, Sovran gave a few examples, including:
– the introduction of 25 dedicated early education reading teachers;
– analysis of the student census conducted in the fall; and
– the transition of the outdoor education centre at Island Lake to a centre for Indigenous Education and land based learning.
More information, including a video recording of the meeting and links to the full reports, is available at https://www.ugdsb.ca/board/board-meetings/board-and-committee-meetings-2022-2023/.
