Wednesday’s Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) meeting, held virtually, was one filled with recognizing achievements.
Vice-Principal Nadia Zanatta of Our Lady of Lourdes French Immersion Catholic School in Elliot Lake has received the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) Student Trustee Alumni Award.
“The award is given annually to a former Catholic student trustee who has demonstrated exceptional achievement in any field and positive Catholic values. Recipients must demonstrate service to their communities and outstanding leadership that inspires meaningful change,” states the H-SCDSB website.
Zanatta was the Catholic student trustee for St. Mary’s College in her Grade 12 year in 2005-2006.
In addition, Andrea Greco, vice-principal of Holy Trinity Catholic Virtual Academy, was also on the list of nominees for this year’s Student Trustee Alumni Award.
Greco was a Catholic student trustee for the former St. Basil Secondary School in 1998-1999.
Zanatta and Greco placed in the top two final spots for this year’s award.
“The most obvious sign that Catholic education made a positive impact on VP Greco and VP Zanatta is the fact that after graduation they chose to return and teach in Catholic education and we’re sure glad they did because they have been a real gift to our board,” said Leslie Cassidy-Amadio, H-SCDSB trustee, addressing the board.
“Both are leaders in their community, their parish and their school. They have initiated, organized and implemented multiple programs that have benefited many, but especially those in need.”
Zanatta will receive her award at an OCSTA seminar in Mississauga in January 2022.
“We all know... these last two years have been quite a struggle and we certainly have needed that faith in God even more, but we have to realize all things are possible with that faith and the light is shining so brightly towards the end of that, and that’s what we have to continue to strive for,” Greco said, congratulating Zanatta on winning the award and thanking trustees for being nominated.
“I just want to congratulate Andrea. This is fantastic that we’re both here. I think it really says a lot for a small board... I’m very honoured and I’m very blessed,” Zanatta said.
Meanwhile, Principal Syndy Withers of the new Sacred Heart Catholic Elementary School in Espanola delivered a virtual tour of the new structure which, it is hoped, will be open to students for in person learning in September.
The new joint facility, which the Huron-Superior board will share with Conseil scolaire catholique Nouvelon (CSC Nouvelon), will house Sacred Heart and École catholique La Renaissance and daycare centres.
The official groundbreaking ceremony for the new school took place in summer 2018.
“It’s been delayed more than once (mainly due to COVID) but we’ll get there,” said Steve Brown, H-SCDSB manager of plant services.
The board intends to perform a move-in process at the Sacred Heart site over the summer.
In other H-SCDSB news, Jim Fitzpatrick, the board’s communications officer, delivered an overview of how its schools marked this year’s Catholic Education Week, which ran from May 2 to May 7.
The theme of Catholic Education Week 2021 was Nurturing Hope.
“It certainly posed a lot of challenges for us this year, as was the case last year when the pandemic started...it was kind of a scary time to say what can the schools do as far as getting some input for us to celebrate Catholic Education Week. They had to do it online obviously,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We wanted to make sure all the schools were involved because sometimes the smaller schools don’t have the capacity or they can’t get involved the same way a larger school would.”
The Huron-Superior board invited each school to submit photos.
Fitzpatrick compiled photos from Holy Cross Catholic School and blended them into a video entitled Holy Cross Harvesting New Fruit with background music, available for viewing on the H-SCDSB YouTube channel.
“We put a lot of the photos on social media, most of them went on Facebook, some went on to Instagram as well and we also linked some of the photos to the board website,” Fitzpatrick said, mentioning photos from Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Chapleau as an example.
The board’s social media presence “gets very, very good traction from the general public,” Fitzpatrick said.
“We get hundreds of people going on to Facebook to see some of our posts. Even some of the smaller schools, like St. Basil’s in White River, do a really good job of posting stuff to their Facebook page, creating videos and such. Most of the schools that are on Facebook, they’re really seeming to get into it now and showing that’s a really good connector to the population of the community they’re in overall.”
“I really appreciate all the photos that the schools sent. It was very nice to see that many photos come in and see that much participation,” Fitzpatrick said.