Greetings

Dear Parents,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you. My name is Anna da Silva and I am the Trustee Elect for Wards, 1, 3 & 4. I am very thankful that I have been selected to represent the parents and students of this community. It is an honour to serve you as trustee and I promise that I will work tirelessly to help our families obtain the service that they expect and deserve.

I would like to tell you a bit about my background and what I feel are important issues that we are facing and that I hope I can address during my term in office.

Background

I am a devoted Catholic and a strong advocate of Catholic education. I am a child of Italian Catholic immigrant parents who attended Catholic school in Toronto. I am the mother of two boys who recently graduated from St. Augustine. I have served as chair and co-chair at St. Augustine for the last six years and represented the Secondary Schools of Brampton West at the Central Committee of Catholic School Councils (CCCSC) for the last three years. I also represented the parents of our board on the “Growing Success” initiative at the Ministry of Education and provided input into the design of the new report cards that are being implemented this year. With the help our council members, I have put together several events which increased parent involvement in our school by 98%.

Professionally, I run a Management Consulting Company which provides Organizational Development, Change Management and Training services to both business and government. I am also a part time professor at York University in the School of Human Resources. I believe that my professional background and experience will enable me to contribute in a meaningful way over the next four years.

Issues

There are several issues facing our Board which I feel need to be addressed. The first issue that we need to address is our ongoing problems with transportation. Our Board is chronically underfunded in the area of transportation and the new Ministry-appointed consortium does not allow us to address issues affecting parents at the community level. I feel that it is important that we work with the Ministry to obtain more funding for transportation and to change the policies that are hindering our ability to address bussing issues on a neighbourhood by neighbourhood basis. I intend to work on this issue so that we can reduce our transportation challenges for next September.

The next issue that must be addressed as soon as possible is the lack of availability of text books. It is imperative that we provide our students with the resources that they need to be successful. While there have been many changes to the curriculum which has affected text book availability, I feel that we cannot allow our students to go without the required resources to be successful. I intend to address this issue as soon as possible.

Another issue that I feel needs to be addressed is the use of technology in our schools. I believe that we need to develop a technology strategy that will incorporate the use of new technologies such as learning management systems, social networking, websites and email to build a stronger learning community. I will work to have this strategy developed and lobby the Ministry for adequate funding for technology in our schools.

Finally, there is a need to be proactive in addressing the ongoing threat to publicly-funded Catholic education. I believe that we will face a very serious threat to our education system in the next provincial election and it is imperative that we prepare for this threat. We must protect our right to Catholic education and I believe that the best way to accomplish this is to educate our parents, students, and teachers on the importance of Catholic education and on how to address the misguided arguments that are levelled against our system. I will work to ensure that everyone in our system has the information that they need to deal with these misguided threats.

I know that our community faces many more challenges than what I have noted. In Wards 1, 3 & 4 in particular, there is a need to address student academic achievement. Our tests scores are lower than scores in other regions and it is important that we identify the reasons for this and address them. This region also has a high proportion of students with financial and social needs that require additional supports. We must do more about providing these supports so that students can succeed. Additionally, the schools in our wards are some of the oldest in Brampton. They require repair and upgrading. Resources need to be allocated to address these issues if we are to improve the standard of education in our community. I will do my best to improve the Catholic education that is provided to our community.

I hope to be able to meet many of you at upcoming events and council meetings. In the meantime, if you wish to contact me you may do so via email at destacom@rogers.com.

Sincerely,

Anna da Silva

Trustee Elect, Wards 1, 3 & 4