Presentations
Director’s recognition
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) Public Meeting of the Board. Hahn introduced this month’s recipients of the Director’s Recognition Award.
Nichole Fielder is a mental health counsellor at Haliburton Highlands Secondary School. She exemplifies leadership and support around mental health and well-being through making a tremendous difference in students and staff’s lives every day. Nichole comes up with and executes plans that directly target the needs of our students, from working to support a whole classroom, to developing the “Wellness Wall” of personal items that students may need. Nichole’s guidance, knowledge, enthusiasm, and constant smile adds so much to the school community.
Hahn introduced the new Director’s Recognition for Innovation and Leadership, which will highlight the extraordinary contributions by staff members, students, or community members who are demonstrating innovation and leadership to support and advance TLDSB’s strategic directions. This recognition is centered around improving outcomes for student learning and achievement, and fostering student and staff well-being. The first Director’s Recognition for Innovation and Leadership will take place at the November Public Meeting of the Board.
Summer construction update
Superintendent of Business Services, Tim Ellis, presented trustees with a slideshow of the construction projects that took place over the summer. This projects included:
- Five roofing replacement projects
- Eight life safety upgrades
- Eight front door entry system installations
- Nine entry card reader systems
- Four projects of LED lighting in gymnasiums
- Two facility spray fireproofing projects
- Two gymnasium floor refinishings
- Four sidewalk upgrades
- Four paving projects
- One drainage project
- Various landscaping projects
- Six Special Education calming rooms and related accommodations
- One tech shop floor replacement
- Two washroom renovations
- Muskoka Education Centre archive room, technology storage room, and meeting spaces projects
Suspension and expulsion data and student supports
Superintendent of learning, Paul Goldring, presented the suspension and expulsion data from the 2022-2023 school year. This presentation included historical data as a comparison to last school year as well as the monthly trends.
Acting associate superintendent of learning responsible for mental health and well-being, Tanya Fraser, shared the steps taken across the Board to ensure students feel safe and have feelings of belonging at their school. Fraser noted normalizing mental health through conversations, reducing stigma, and building mental health knowledge among students and staff. Fraser spoke about how TLDSB mental health counsellors implement these strategies through bolstering staff knowledge and confidence, explicit teaching of wellness strategies, in addition to focussing on social emotional learning and mental health literacy for students in Grades 7 and 8. Additionally, the mental health team is adding suicide awareness and prevention workshops to be available this school year.
Director’s report
Director of education, Wes Hahn, introduced the TLDSB results from the Education Quality and Accountability (EQAO) assessments that were conducted last school year noting that TLDSB has shown an increase in all areas at or above the province. Superintendent of learning responsible for K-8 Curriculum Services, Jay MacJanet, noted the celebrations of increases in Grades 3 and 6 results in reading, writing, and mathematics, and attributed the above provincial scores in elementary due to the hard work of our educators in ensuring students were prepared with the knowledge and skills.
Superintendent of learning responsible for 9-12 Curriculum Services, Kim Williams, presented the secondary school results in Grade 9 de-streamed mathematics and the Grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Williams noted the improvements of 9-14 percent in secondary schools and credited this success to providing students with direct instruction with deliberate practice.
Superintendent of learning responsible for Special Education, Jennifer Johnston, shared the results from students with Special Education needs (excludes gifted students) who have an Individual Education Plan (IEP), and attributed the greeted achievement to key learnings in evidence-based instruction. Johnston also noted that early intervention has been implemented in the classroom for Grade 3, 6, and OSSLT, which is believed to achieve greater success.
2023 Board meeting schedule
Board meetings are open to the public to attend at the host location in-person. For virtual access, the meetings are live-streamed and the link is made available on the tldsb.ca website on the day of the meeting.
| Meeting | Date | Time | Location |
| Public Board Meeting | November 28, 2023 | 6 p.m. | Lindsay Education Centre (LEC) |
| Organizational Meeting of the Board | December 5, 2023 | 6 p.m. | Muskoka Education Centre (MEC) |
The schedule for 2024 meetings will be approved at the December 5, Annual Organizational Meeting of the Board.
