Toronto Catholic District School Board
The Toronto Catholic District School Board is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. It is one of the two English boards of education serving the city of Toronto.
The board was founded on April 2, 1953 as the Metropolitan Separate School Board when nearby separate school districts were amalgamated as a singular separate school board in Metro Toronto. In addition to English-language schools, the board also operated a handful of French-language schools by the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Grand Toronto, the board's French unit. In 1998, the MSSB was renamed and reorganized into the Toronto Catholic District School Board leaving the board with anglophone schools while the francophone schools that were previously operated by CECGT were amalgamated with nearby French school boards in the region to form Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud.
With more than 84,000 students, the TCDSB is one of the largest school boards in Canada, and is the largest publicly funded Catholic school board in the world.
History
On April 2, 1953, the Metropolitan Separate School Board, officially known as the Metropolitan Toronto Roman Catholic Separate School Board was formed as the governing body of all publicly funded. Roman Catholic schools in Toronto through the merger of several separate boards in Metro Toronto. The merger was passed through Bill 37, the Metropolitan Separate School Board Act.At its peak in 1990, the board operated 185 anglophone and six francophone elementary schools and 41 anglophone and one francophone secondary schools with 100,000 total students. The MSSB took over seven high schools transferred from the Metropolitan Toronto School Board in 1988, with one of them being a francophone Catholic high school, the institution that has been lost since 1968. The MSSB was the largest school board in Canada at the time.
In 1997, as a result of Bill 104, the Fewer School Boards Act, the boards were reorganized resulting in the separation of English and French language schools. The MSSB became known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 and renamed itself to the Toronto Catholic District School Board in 1999 while the former Section de langue française unit became part of the new French-language Separate District School Board No. 64 which later became Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud.
The board headquarters were located on Duke Street, then Jarvis Street, and the MSSB moved its operations in 1964 to 150 Laird Drive, the former headquarters of Durant Motors and later, Imperial Oil. In 1982, the board moved to its current administrative headquarters and offices on 80 Sheppard Avenue East. The school board also had the offices for Section de langue française on Drewry Avenue, opened in 1989 in the former Lewis S. Beattie Secondary School, though it has since been occupied by Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir as its administrative offices.
Organization
The Toronto Catholic District School Board mission statement that nurtures "the faith development and academic excellence of our Catholic learning community through the love of God, neighbour, and self." The vision encourages learning communities of the Board to follow God's Image that grows in "Knowledge, with Justice and Hope."The school board is governed by 12 elected trustees who serve for a four-year term. Trustees are paid $18,500 a year in salary, and can claim up to $18,000 for expenses. Prior to the 1998 separation of French-language schools, the Metropolitan Separate School Board had three French language seats. The policies of the Board are administered by the Director of Education and designates.
There are more than 91,000 students serving over 195 Catholic schools, and represent close to 475,000 Catholic school supporters in all of Toronto. The TCDSB also has staff consisting of 6,000 teachers, 2,800 support staff, 360 principals and vice principals, and 200 administrators.
In addition, the Board operates standing three committees: the Student Achievement and Well Being, Catholic Education and Human Resources, Corporate Affairs, Strategic Planning and Property, & Governance Framework.
Trustees
As of, the trustee boundaries are aligned with the municipal wards, which was realigned to match with the federal and provincial ward boundaries.| Ward | Trustee | Municipal Ward | Federal and Provincial Riding | TDSB Corresponding Ward | Notes |
| 1 | Joseph Martino | 1 | Etobicoke North | 1 | |
| 2 | Markus De Domenico | 2 | Etobicoke Centre | 2 | Chair of the Board |
| 3 | Ida Li Preti | 7 | Humber River—Black Creek | 4 | |
| 4 | Teresa Lubinski | 3, 4 | Etobicoke-LakeshoreParkdale-High Park | 3, 7 | |
| 5 | Maria Rizzo | 6, 8, 10 | York Centre Eglinton-Lawrence Willowdale | 5, 8, 12 | |
| 6 | Frank D'Amico | 9 | Davenport | 9 | |
| 7 | Mike Del Grande | 21, 22 | Scarborough Centre Scarborough-Agincourt | 17, 20 | |
| 8 | Garry Tanuan | 23, 25 | Scarborough North Scarborough-Rouge Park | 21, 22 | |
| 9 | Kevin Morrison | 10, 11, 12, 13 | Spadina-Fort York University-Rosedale Toronto-St. Paul's Toronto Centre | 8, 9, 10 | Vice-Chair of the Board |
| 10 | Daniel Di Giorgio | 5 | York South-Weston | 7, 9 | |
| 11 | Angela Kennedy | 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 | Toronto-Danforth Don Valley West Don Valley East Don Valley North Beaches-East York | 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 | |
| 12 | Nancy Crawford | 20, 24 | Scarborough Southwest Scarborough-Guildwood | 18, 19 | |
| Student Trustee | JoyGold Goodluck Ruben Da Silveira | --- | --- | --- |
Chairs of the Board
Italics indicate the trustee remains active.- Averell Robinson, Q.C. - 1953–1954; Original chair of the MSSB
- Rev. Msgr. Hugh Callaghan, D.P. - 1954–1955
- Gerard Godin - 1956–1957
- Georges B. Heenan - 1958–1959
- Michael J. Duggan - 1960–1962
- Edward J. Brisbois - 1963–1965
- Dr. John J. Andrachuk - 1966–1967
- Rev. Msgr. Percy H. Johnson, P.H. 1968–1969; School named after him.
- J.A. Fullerton - 1970–1971
- J.A. Marrese - 1972–1974
- Joseph Grittani - 1975–1976
- Rev. E.F. Boehler - 1977–1978
- Bruno M. Suppa - 1979–1980
- Paul J. Duggan - 1981–1982
- Edward T. McMahon - 1983–1984; 1996–1997
- Rev. E.F. Boehler - 1984–1985
- Rev. C. Matthews, S.J. - 1985–1986
- Caroline M. DiGiovanni - 1986–1988
- Michael Lofranco - 1988–1989
- Donald E. Clune - 1989–1992
- Elvira DeMonte - 1992–1994
- Paul B.R. Fernandes - 1994–1996
- Joseph Martino - 1997–1999 - Last chair as MSSB and first chair of the reorganized TCDSB.
- Rose Andrachuk - 1999–2000
- Mike Del Grande - 2000–2001 - Later became city councilor; 2014–2015
- Joseph Carnevale - 2001–2003;
- Oliver Carroll - 2003–2007 - Ousted in early 2009 for conflict of interest charges. Now serves as a teacher for the Toronto District School Board since 2010 and teaches at Scarborough Centre for Alternative Studies from 2012 onwards.
- Catherine LeBlanc-Miller - 2008–2009
- Angela Kennedy - 2009–2010 - later removed by the judge and was later re-elected; 2015–2016
- Ann Andrachuk - 2010-2013
- Jo-Ann Davis - 2013–2014
- Barbara Poplawski - 2017–18
- Maria Rizzo - 2018-2019
- Angela Kennedy - 2019-2020
- Joe Martino - 2020-2022
- Nancy Crawford - 2022-24
- Markus de Domenico - 2024 to Present
Directors of Education
Current
The current director of education is Dr. Brendan Browne, who was appointed in 2020. Prior to his appointment, Browne served as the central superintendent for the Toronto District School Board covering schools in most of the former North York and Scarborough.Past directors
- B. E. Nelligan - 1965–1983
- Berchman Kipp - 1983–1989
- Tony Barone - 1989–1996
- Norm Forma - 1996–1997
- Johanne Stewart - 1997–2001
- Tom Donavan - 2001–2005
- Noel Martin - 2005
- Kevin Kobus - 2005–2007
- Les Nemes - 2007–2009
- Ann Perron - 2009–2011
- Bruce Rodrigues - 2011–2013
- Angela Gauthier - 2013-2017
- Rory McGuckin - 2017-2020
- Brendan Browne - 2020 to present
Schools
School bus transportation
The following service providers have been contracted by the school board:- Attridge Transportation
- Dignity Transportation
- First Student Canada
- McCluskey Transportation Services
- Sharp Bus Lines
- Stock Transportation
- Switzer-Carty Transportation
- Toronto Transit Commission
- Wheelchair Accessible Transit
Uniforms
In 1988, the MSSB ruled that public separate high schools are required to wear uniforms. At the time, all of the high schools in Scarborough except for Newman had uniforms. Some trustees anticipated protests from parents and students from Newman.
, all TCDSB elementary students must wear a uniform of a white or navy blue top, and navy blue bottoms. This is enforced in special programs such as the gifted program and ME.