GUELPH – The Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) calendars for the 2023-24 school year have been submitted to the province with a single revision following public input.
A survey and feedback form was available from Jan. 25 to Feb. 8, and 685 people responded, said education superintendent Matt McCutcheon during a Feb. 28 UGDSB meeting.
Of those responses, 425 were parents/guardians, 28 students, 209 staff, and 23 people were from the general public.
There was “significant support for both calendars,” he noted, with 68 per cent in support of the elementary calendar and 76% in support of the secondary.
Respondents agreed on timing for most “holidays and professional days,” McCutcheon said, but there was “fairly significant feedback that the originally proposed PA day [on March 1]be moved to April, so as to minimize the number of disruptions during the month of March.”
The PA day was moved to April 19, 2024.
An adjustment was also made to the current 2022-23 secondary school calendar because of inclement weather on Jan. 26, when busses were cancelled and exams postponed and rescheduled, said board chair Ralf Mesenbrink.
UGDSB calendars can be found online at: ugdsb.ca/schools/school-year-calendars.
High schools highlighted
During the meeting education director Peter Sovran highlighted the Guelph CVI Black Students Union’s participation in a “video discussing the transition from Black History to Black Futures month.”
Students Selim Amegashie, Quesi Collins, Laura Hirwa, Keir Holland, Malik Jules-Peterkin, Jasmine Liban, and Dunsin Oyediran reflect on the meaning, impact and importance of Black futures in the CBC Kids News video.
Sovran quoted one student in the video: “‘Black futures means the progression of the Black race, and the history – acknowledging both and seeing how we can move forward in the future.’”
“The video explains how the term Black Futures gained consensus in the early 2010s when the Movement for Black Lives organization took Black History month and reframed it into Black Futures,” Sovran added, a change “described as visionary, forward-looking, and celebratory of Blackness in February.”
The video can be viewed online at ugdsb.ca/gcvi/2023/02/28/gcvi-black-students-union-appears-on-cbc-kids-discussing-black-futures.
Sovran also highlighted Wellington Heights Secondary School (WHSS) in Mount Forest, where Christiane Lopez’s business leadership class raised “more than $16,000 for families in the Wellington North community” with its Warm Winter Wishes campaign.
“Students organized several engaging events as well as a food drive,” he noted, collecting over 1,800 items for local food banks.
CUPE collective agreements ratified
Trustee Katherine Hauser noted collective agreements are ratified with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 256, representing caretaking, maintenance, and English-as-a-second-language staff.
Student trustees
Student trustee elections occured Feb. 21.
Current urban student trustee Julia Elmslie said four students submitted nominations.
The new urban student trustee will be Paige Knight from Orangeville District Secondary School, with a term from Aug. 1 to July 31, 2024.
Brooke Hartley, from WHSS, was acclaimed to her position as rural student trustee for the 2023-24 school year.
