Highlights from the Board Room – January 25

Board Meeting   |  Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Presentations

Director’s Recognition Award

The Director’s Recognition Award highlights extraordinary contributions by staff members, students, school volunteers, or community members, and is presented by the Director of Education, Wes Hahn, at each Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) Regular Meeting of the Board. Hahn introduced this month’s recipient of the Director’s Recognition Award.

Muskoka area custodial supervisor, Leo Dubreuil, was nominated for his leadership in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dubreuil started with the former Muskoka Board in 1994, and progressed through various custodial positions to later become a supervisor in 2017. When the pandemic struck, Dubreuil was instrumental in organizing, receiving, and distributing personal protective equipment (PPE)and other items required to protect staff and students. Dubreuil has been an essential member and leader on the TLDSB PPE depot team. 

TLDSB 2022-2027 Strategic Plan 

Director Hahn presented the TLDSB 2022-2027 Strategic Plan to trustees and outlined the multi-step process that began in the spring of 2021. He noted that each school board in Ontario is responsible for creating and publishing a multi-year strategic plan, and that this new plan is a framework that guides TLDSB’s strategic directions, priorities, and commitments as a learning organization for the next five years.

Hahn shared that a Strategic Plan Planning Committee worked alongside a third-party consultant to lead the planning and input process for the development of the strategic plan. There were over 4,800 participants from across the TLDSB community whose feedback was instrumental in the creation of the plan. After thorough analysis of the data, two broad-goals were defined as the focus of the plan and a number of actions that TLDSB will engage in to help support each goal and our primary stakeholders: staff, students, and our community.

Visit the Strategic Directions page on the Board’s website to learn more and view the TLDSB 2022-2027 Strategic Plan.

Director’s update

Hahn began his update by acknowledging the challenging times we are all experiencing during the pandemic, and noted that TLDSB has been keeping the community informed of COVID-19 updates and changes as they relate to schools. He reiterated that the Board remains positive and, as always, continues to focus on the health and safety of our students and staff.

With the new Ontario absence reporting data available on the Ontario.ca website, Hahn clarified that this new information provides the percentage of absences for both students and staff at the school level, and includes all absences, which may not be related to COVID-19.

In recent communication to TLDSB families, the proactive approach the Board is taking with respect to illnesses was outlined by Hahn. He mentioned that each day the school principal and superintendent are in communications with one another in respect to individuals who are absent due to illness. Hahn noted that the Board wants students to remain in school, but if there are sudden spikes or high levels of illnesses within a class and/or school, measures will be taken to ensure everyone’s safety. In these situations, families will receive communication directly from the school. When a school is close to the 30 percent threshold of absences due to illness, the Board will work closely with our public health units to determine the next steps together.

Hahn noted that the areas of air filtration, PPE, rapid antigen tests, and daily self screening continues to be a focus. Public health will be hosting vaccination clinics in some TLDSB schools for children aged 5 to 11. Parental permission will be required for children to participate in these clinics and when dates have been confirmed, information will be shared with our community.

Administrative reports

Travel rate 2022

Superintendent of Business, Tim Ellis, provided an update to trustees on the 2022 kilometer travel rate calculation for staff use of a personal vehicle for board business. Using the established automobile rates set by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the current rate is .61 cents for up to 5,000 kilometres and .55 cents for over 5,000 kilometers.

2021 Board and Committee of the Whole meeting schedule

*Listed meeting locations will be assessed on a meeting-by-meeting basis and may need to be altered depending on the COVID-19 protocols in place as determined by the Chief Medical Officer of Health and/or local Public Health Units and/or the Ministry of Education.