CATHOLIC BRIEFS
Catholic budget still on track
Niagara Catholic’s one-week lockout of its elementary teachers in March cost it about $1 million in funding. The grant loss, however, was offset by a reduction in pay to teachers. “We’re still trending toward a balanced portfolio,” financial services superintendent Giancarlo Vetrone told Niagara Catholic District School Board trustees this week. Looking ahead to the 2017-18 term, Vetrone outlined future spending: modest wage and benefits increases; more staffing for special education; class size investment for full-day kindergarten and over the next five years for grades 4 to 8; greenhouse gas reduction; support funding for Indigenous education; and, an artificial turf field in Niagara Falls shared with
Board approves revised policies
Niagara Catholic District School board approved four revised policies at its Tuesday meeting. They include: an internal financial management policy; an employee workplace harassment policy; an employee workplace violence policy; and, an occupational health and safety policy. The board regularly reviews and revises its policies, some annually. The internal financial management monthly policy was last updated in 2010, the other three in 2016. St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School found fans at the Niagara Catholic District School Board meeting Tuesday. St. Catharines trustees Kathy Burtnik and Maurice Charbonneau praised smiling students and the school. “St. Anthony is the best.” Rev. Paul MacNeil admitted his bias as a graduate of St. Anthony. The St. Catharines school was featured as part of the board’s school excellence program. Two senior students, Megan Edwards from Grade 8 and Bianca Sestili, Grade 7, outlined the school’s programs, sports, arts and activities through a video. Its choir sang the school song to demonstrate its music program, unusual for an elementary school. St. Anthony on Rykert Street, with 500 early learning kindergarten to Grade 8 students, opened in 1954 with four teachers. It twinned with St. Mary in 1982 and additions came in 1995 and 2012. It is part of the Denis Morris Secondary School family of schools.
St. Anthony in spotlight