Educators recognized for Excellence in Catholic Education
Notre Dame Academy teacher Guy Lanigan was announced Tuesday as the winner of the 2017 Excellence in Catholic Education Award.
The award was established by Council for Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta. Lanigan will receive the official award at the upcoming SPICE annual spring conference hosted by the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association April 27-30.
Lanigan has been the religious co-ordinator at Notre Dame for 12 years, and is a member of the “Live Like That” team, aiming to foster greater study engagement around the Catholic message in schools. He also co-ordinates the school’s free breakfast program.
An emotional Lanigan thanked trustees and his colleagues for nominating him.
“My passion is to serve, and what a great institution a school is to serve,” he said. “The ‘how’ is important — how to assess kids, how we develop curriculum — but if we don’t have the ‘why’, it doesn’t matter. The ‘why’ is your heart and soul. The ‘why’ is the kids.”
Another award recipient recognized Tuesday night Mother Teresa Grade 4 teacher Greg Martin, named an “Ambassador for Catholic Education” for his 15 years of service within the school and local Catholic community.
Board projects larger deficit than predicted
MHCBE secretary/treasurer Greg MacPherson delivered his second-quarter report to trustees on Tuesday night.
Expenditures for the year have increased by $88,250 more than expected. MHCBE will be examining cost efficiencies to make up some of this shortfall, the rest will be funded from reserves. Overall, MHCBE is projecting a $405,525 operating deficit this year, and a $426,599 deficit in net assets and reserves.
McCoy completion date pushed back again
Citing unforeseen delays, MacPherson also reported to trustees on Tuesday night the contractors overseeing the Monsignor McCoy modernization are now hoping to have substantial work completed by the start of 2017/18 school year, instead of by the end of summer was hoped.