An Outspoken Advocate & Innovative Change Leader
Listening to the Community - to bring about positive change
Listening to the Community - to bring about positive change
(Scroll down for Jo-Ann's actions).
Jo-Ann believes we should make our board a place of innovation & community of faith by advocating for policies & programs that:
- support & develop student mental physical & spiritual well being
- support the learning needs of all students & development of staff
- advance Catholic Social Justice principles, including the dignity of each person (student, staff, and community members)
- encourage students to live faith-filled lives, including contributing to the Common Good.
- enable our board to be environmentally sustainable and help us 'Care for our Common Home' (Pope Francis)
- enable collaborative & responsive school / board learning & working environments.
Listening to the Community - to bring about positive change
Listening to the Community - to bring about positive change
Listening to the Community - to bring about positive change
The role of trustee exists in large part to bring local needs to Board decision-making, to call out when board policy, budgets and programs don't meet those needs, and to propose effective solutions.
This requires hearing from as many different local voices as possible,. This is done many ways - Jo-Ann has done it by regularly attending parent council meetings and organizing community meetings - seeking community input before important Board votes, through an informative trustee website, substantive school newsletters which include policy and budget updates, community surveys., and responding to constituents emails and phone calls.
See 'Community Support' page for why community members are supporting Jo-Ann
Working with local City Councillors, MPPs and MPs
Listening to the Community - to bring about positive change
Bringing Parents, Staff & Parishes Together - to inform & learn
Having good working relationships with other local representatives is important as their support or approval may be needed for areas of local change..
As trustee for Ward 9, Jo-Ann's work in this area supported efforts such as securing funding for new schools - St Raymond and St Michael's Choir School - the development of Bishop Macdonell (photo above) - and $300,000 if City funding for a new park and outdoor green learning space at Monsignor Fraser Annex,
Jo-Ann has also served as Vice Chair of the City of Toronto-School Board Committee which brought together city councillors and trustee representatives from all 4 local school boards.
Bringing Parents, Staff & Parishes Together - to inform & learn
Bringing Parents, Staff & Parishes Together - to inform & learn
Bringing Parents, Staff & Parishes Together - to inform & learn
As one way of both informing and listening to the community, as trustee of Ward 9 (2010 -2018) Jo-Ann organized, and if elected, would introduce to Ward 4, an annual ward-wide Leadership meeting with the local School Superintendents, CSPC Chairs, principals and pastors,
The agenda is created with invitees and focused on only 3 different priority topics each year to ensure that we have the necessary resources / inputs available at the meeting, and to support meaningful discussion and shared learning.
Supporting Our Students - especially the most vulnerable
Bringing Parents, Staff & Parishes Together - to inform & learn
Supporting Our Students - especially the most vulnerable
The stated Vision for the TCDSB is that "at Toronto Catholic we transform the world through witness, faith, innovation and action."
The entire TCDSB community of staff, students and community members help make this Vision a reality; but, it only works if our students - who are at the centre of our Mission - are also at the centre of our decision-making.
As Ward 9 trustee Jo-Ann supported LGBTQ2S students, expanded the student voice in combating bullying and increasing school safety, advocated for Special Education, literacy (Fifth Block) and student support funding, and advocated to reduce the voting age for trustee elections to 16.
WORK AS WARD 9 TRUSTEE (2010 - 2018)
Examples of items Jo-Ann introduced and championed as trustee:
As trustee for Ward 9, Jo-Ann answered every call and email from constituents.
She helped to secure funding for 2 new schools - St Raymond elementary and St Michael's Choir School - $2 million in funding to renovate Pope Francis elementary - the development of Bishop Macdonell at Canoe Landing and $300,000 in City funding for a new park and outdoor green learning space at Monsignor Fraser Alternative school in the Annex,
- Her first motion as a trustee, in 2011, was for the Board to celebrate Pope John Paul II Day in classrooms across the city annually
- the creation of the Catholic Social Justice Committee (with staff, parent, trustee and external partner members, the committee provided regular recommendations to Board to close the learning opportunity gaps for students across our Board)
- the creation of the Governance & Policy Committee (to bring transparency and public accountability to policy development)
- advocated for the creation of an Ombudsman role to investigate complaints brought forward by parents and students and assist with their fair resolution. The Board of Trustees did not pass the motion, but since then, the provincial Ombudsman has been given power to oversee the education sector.
- the Board's first Community Advisory Committee (Partners in Motion for the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking communities), It's success enabled the creation of what are now 9 community advisory committees, including Ukrainian, LGBTQ2S, African Canadian and Indigenous, increasing the community voice and providing another way to amplify student need at the Board.
- supporting the the right of students to create Gay-Straight Alliances
- created the goal of making the TCDSB the first Net-Zero Energy school board in the province (the goal is still being worked towards and annual reports are still provided),
- finding funds in order to reduce staff-planned cuts to critical Special Education, literacy programs (Fifth Block) and critical educational support workers (e.g. ECEs, Child & Youth Workers) during annual budget discussions.
- for staff to develop programming for students across our board to study, and reflect on, Pope’s Francis’s critical Laudato Si (Care of our Common Home) Encyclical letter which focuses on our interconnected relationships with God, each other and our planet.
- the expansion of the Safe Schools report to give vulnerable students a stronger voice to identify solutions for issues impacting student safety and well being, and
- reducing the voting age for municipal elections to 16 given the direct impact of the role of trustee on students. (The motion lost on a tie vote of trustees).
Board-wide initiative as parent council Chair at St Vincent de Paul school: Jo-Ann led an initiative in May, 2019, for St Vincent de Paul school students and parents to delegate at a Board of Trustees meeting for desperately needed playground investment in support of student success and well-being. The delegations resulted in the creation of an annual $1.2M Playground Reserve, in June, 2019, for schools across the Board