Waterloo Catholic District School Board

Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 49 prior to 1999[2]) is a school board serving the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Its headquarters are in Kitchener. It is the eighth largest Catholic school system in Ontario.[3]

Waterloo Catholic District School Board
Location
35 Weber St. W., Unit A Kitchener, Ontario
Cambridge, Kitchener, North Dumfries, Waterloo, Wellesley, Wilmot, Woolwich

Canada
District information
Chair of the boardManuel da Silva
Director of educationLoretta Notten
Schools46 Elementary Schools
5 Secondary Schools
4 Adult and Continuing Education Campuses
BudgetCA$205.8 million
Students and staff
Students40,000
Other information
Elected trustees[1]Wendy Price – Chair
Bill Conway – Vice Chair
Manuel da Silva
Jeanne Gravelle
Melanie Van Alphen
Greg Reitzel
Brian Schmalz
Amy Fee
Joyce Anderson
Websitewww.wcdsb.ca

As of July 2017, this Board operated 46 elementary schools, five secondary schools and four adult and continuing education campuses served by 3,500 full and part-time staff (including teachers, educational assistants, support staff, custodial staff, youth care workers, administrators and chaplains.) The Board's elementary, secondary and adult/continuing education students are served by more than 3,000 full-time staff. The total enrolment was 40,000, including the students in adult/continuing education programs. At the time, 22% of residential taxpayers were supporting Catholic schools and 30% of the Region's schools were operated by the Catholic Board.[4] The Board has an annual budget of nearly a quarter billion dollars[5] and currently operates according to its 2015-2018 Strategic Plan.[6]

This Board is run independently of the Waterloo Region District School Board, which operates the Region's 120 public schools.

Brief history

What was to become the Waterloo Catholic District School Board began in 1836 in a log building in St. Agatha, Ontario used by both the public and Catholic students. A permanent stone building was erected in 1854. A second school was also built in 1836, in New Germany (now Maryhill, Ontario. The next Catholic school to be built, was in St. Clements, Ontario and it opened in 1840, in Preston (now Cambridge, Ontario) in 1847.[5]

St. Jerome High School, then called a College, was founded in 1865 by Reverend Dr Louis Funcken and his brother Fr Eugene Funcken, Fathers of the Congregation of the Resurrection. The first location was a log cabin in St. Agatha but by 1867, the school moved to Duke St. in Kitchener. Initially, its role was to prepare young men for the seminary. This school closed permanently in 1990.[7]

By 1907 the local area had 6 Catholic Schools (including a Catholic girls' convent school.) The original schools were centered in the areas of Berlin (now Kitchener), and Preston (now Cambridge.)[8]

With the passage of the British North America Act in 1867, which guaranteed Roman Catholics in Ontario the right to their own Catholic schools, it was only a matter of time until Catholic schools extended into all of Waterloo County. For many years, the teaching staffs came from among the Religious – particularly Religious Sisters. Today the laity carries out the teaching and support roles. Full funding to the Catholic school system began in 1984.[5]

By 1968, there were independent Catholic School Boards operating in Kitchener, Waterloo, Galt, Preston, Hespeler, Bridgeport, New Hamburg, Maryhill, St. Agatha, Linwood, Elmira and St. Clements. These independent Boards all ceased to exist on January 1, 1969, when the Ontario Legislature amalgamated them into one Board – the Waterloo County Separate School Board.[8]

In 1997, the Waterloo County Separate School Board was renamed and became the Waterloo District Catholic School Board.

In early 2018, the Board indicated that enrolment was increasing more rapidly in the past four years than in previous years. Between 2005 and 2014 enrolment grew only 2%. Since 2014 however, full-time enrolment had increased from 19,718 to approximately 22,088 students. An estimate at the time indicated that roughly one in four students in the Region are educated by the Catholic Board.[9]

Secondary schools
gollark: It implies that things are good because NatURaL and not other reasons.
gollark: Yes, pro-nature is bad.
gollark: That sort of labelling is too pro-nature for me.
gollark: I don't want to support things which are called "organic".
gollark: If you claim to care about something, but then mostly just ignore it, that's not exactly very meaningfully "caring".

See also

References
  1. "Trustees".
  2. "Ontario Regulation 107/08". e-Laws. Government of Ontario. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  3. Online Board Profile
  4. "Board Profile QUICKfacts - WCDSB".
  5. "History".
  6. "Executive Summary Brochure" (PDF). www.wcdsb.ca. 2016. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
  7. "St. Jerome's History".
  8. A Brief History of Waterloo Region's Catholic Schools
  9. Outhit, Jeff (3 January 2018). "Catholic schools get their groove back as enrolment surges". TheRecord.com.
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