CatholicBoardHuron-Superior Catholic District School Board trustees received an update on the St. Basil Elementary School project.  It was announced on Wednesday night that the work to turn the former secondary school into an elementary one will cost about 9 million dollars.  Most of that — 5.8 million — will be spent on the actual transformation work to do that.  The remaining cost will be spent on other restoration work and some demolition.  Trustees decided to move forward on Wednesday to submit the funding application to the Ministry of Education.  Approval is to be decided next month with the project scheduled to go to tender in May.  Construction would start in June with an expected project completion date of August 2017.  Trustees learned about the site and floor plans and what will make up St. Basil Elementary.  Some areas such as the chapel, the cafeteria and the double gym will be maintained.  But there will be reductions in the size of the change rooms and the cafeteria kitchen.  A ‘culture room’ will be located where the exercise room was and there are plans to add to the camera/buzz-in system for greater security.  When completed in August 2017, St. Basil Elementary will have 29 teaching spaces — enough for 617 students.  The ‘new’ school will have art, music and science labs and the existing amphitheatre will be maintained.  The back of the school will be paved with two basketball courts.  There will also be a daycare with 49 spaces and four kindergarten classrooms inside the main school building — with the possibility of a fifth classroom.  Information sessions to collect public feedback on the site and floor plans for St. Basil Elementary are scheduled for next week on the following nights and times:

— Monday, January 18th at 6:00 p.m. at St. Ann School

— Monday, January 18th at 7:30 p.m. at St. Theresa School

— Wednesday, January 20th at 6:00 p.m. at St. Pius X School

— Wednesday, January 20th at 7:30 p.m. at St. Bernadette School

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Catholic board trustees also learned about what work is being done to improve EQAO math results.  The board is currently experiencing a gap between the percentage of Grade 9 students meeting the provincial standard — Level 3 or 4 — in academic math and those students achieving that standard in applied math — a gap of about 50 percent!  Short-term, mid-term and long-term strategies were discussed at last night’s meeting, with some ideas already in place for the last year or two.   Short-term ideas would include a mention of past EQAO questions on tests prior to the upcoming EQAO math test.  Two qualified teachers have also been present at schools for a three day period to help struggling students with testing and one-on-one support.  Despite the low results regarding the percentage of students meeting the provincial standard in applied math, the catholic board is not that far away from success.  It was announced last night that out of 75 students tested for Grade 9 Applied math, 36 of them achieved Level 2 — 21 met Level 3 or 4.  Teachers are working on mid-term strategies that they hope will result in higher test scores in the next 6 to 12 months.  One example of this is working to address students who move from school to school to make sure the material they learn is the same as when they left.  Others include assisting through skill development and parent engagement.   There are some long-term ideas staff are working towards.  They range from building off the Summer Reach program introduced last year.  Students in Grade 3 through 8 learned math through simple activities, such as making patterns with beads and learning ‘math through sports’ by watching the Pan Am Games.  Other efforts include greater communication between elementary and secondary math teachers and attempts to track ‘in-risk’ students more accurately.  These are students who may be struggling because they are moving in between schools and may end up losing track of what they were about to learn with a different math lesson altogether.