Clarity M. Smoke, a Grade 9 Anishnaabe student from Monarch Park Collegiate Institute, has taken her seat as the first ever Toronto District School Board Indigenous Student Trustee. Clarity has been actively involved in raising awareness of Indigenous history and culture within post-secondary institutions, political agencies and community organizations alike. During her spare time, Clarity attends Indigenous cultural celebrations, singing on the Pow Wow Trail and dancing Northern Women’s Traditional. Throughout the school year, Clarity is an active member of the Toronto Indigenous Youth Council as part of her advocacy in the Toronto area. She also pursues other artistic avenues, such as playing the violin and painting. While in this position, she would love to introduce more Indigenous Knowledge into the education curriculum as well as provide more voices like hers to be heard when dealing with racial issues and situations. 

The Director’s Annual Report for the Toronto District School Board was released on December 11, 2019. The report is a ministerial requirement that highlights some of the important work that is happening across the system and accomplishments from the past year. 

The Director John Malloy’s Annual Report can be found here:

https://www.tdsb.on.ca/About-Us/Director-of-Education/Annual-Reports

The Toronto District School Board is the largest, and one of the most diverse school boards in Canada. Nearly one-quarter of our students were born outside of Canada and collectively, we speak more than 120 languages. Understanding all cultures is essential to the success of our young students. To honour this, we formally recognize 14 heritage months throughout the year. During the month of January we ’r e excite d to be star ting off the New Year by celebrating Tamil Heritage Month. This year the chosen theme selected by the volunteer planning committee is, Vision 2020: Yengal Kathaigal - Our Stories / Vision 2020: எங்கள் கதைகள் - Our Stories. 

Toronto has the largest Tamil population outside of the South Asian subcontinent with thousands of TDSB students and staff members heritage identified as Tamil. All have stories of their journey of how they or their families arrived in Canada, and how they continue to embrace this country as their home. The attached poster reflecting the theme is being shared with all schools. Our intent is that it will be used as an educational tool to examine stories within and across cultures of students in the TDSB and how they shape our individual and collective identities.

Starting this school year, the TDSB has expanded its IMI enrichment program to include 17 new schools. As a result of this expansion, more than 1,200 new students will have access to the program through 1,600 new IMI hours. 

The expansion of the program is the result of a review of the distribution of IMI hours which found that some schools had a disproportionately high allocation of hours, while others had none. The IMI program is an enhanced program and the TDSB is one of the few school boards in the GTA that funds IMIs. IMIs support but do not replace elementary teachers who deliver the arts component of the provincially mandated curriculum. 

The new IMI hours will support strings at nine schools, band at four schools and steel pan at four schools. From the 17 schools across the Board, Scarborough-Rouge Park has been allocated additional music supports at TWO of our schools. 

Elementary PA Day: January 17, 2020

Secondary PA Day – (Semestered Schools only): January 30, 2020 

Anu.Sriskandarajah@tdsb.on.ca