The Board of Directors and Executive host board meetings three times a year to review past and upcoming events, provincial reports and any other business related to CCSTA and Catholic education in Canada.
Board Member Updates
Bev Eckensweiler recently completed her term as the OCSTA Past President and consequently ended her term on CCSTA’s Board of Directors. The wisdom garnered from Bev’s extensive political experience in the Catholic educational landscape and from her many years of dedicated service, both as a Catholic trustee with the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board and as the President and Past President of OCSTA, has been a great benefit to Catholic education at the national level. Bev’s presence and wisdom at the boardroom table will be greatly missed!
CCSTA welcomed its newest Director, Mike Doyle (British Columbia). Mike was appointed to the board of directors of Island Catholic Schools five years ago and is currently serving as the board chairperson. We are grateful to have Mike step forward to serve Catholic education at the national level. We thank Leslie Roque for her service on the Board.
Communications
We are profiling each provincial association on the CCSTA website through a Member Highlight series. The articles feature information about the member association’s history, funding structure, statistical numbers, goals and challenges. Following are the links to the British Columbia and Alberta posts.
Our Communications Officer has continued to augment our presence on social media platforms. We are posting regularly on X and Facebook and continuously reviewing which content is most helpful to our membership.
The CCSTA website is undergoing some significant changes because of challenges with backend maintenance. We are working towards switching website platforms to save costs on website maintenance and enable upkeep from within our organization. Our goal is to have a website that is user-friendly, intuitive and reflective of our current Vision to Action plan.
Finances
2025 CCSTA Operating Budget
CCSTA’s Board of Directors and membership approved the 2025 proposed budget of $248,322. The budget is predicated on a 2% membership fee increase and a $40,693 reduction in expenses. The budget proposal includes a $18,002 drawdown from reserves. The fee increase, in addition to the proposed reduced expenses, aims to minimize the Association’s reliance on using reserves to balance the budget.
Reserves
The 2025 Budget Ad Hoc Board Committee was tasked with reviewing the Association’s financial reserves and making recommendations as to how these funds will be utilized. The Board of Directors accepted the Committee’s recommendations to create three separate reserves related to contingencies, legalities, and opportunities.
Audited Financial Statements
The 2023 operating budget included a $81,785 draw-down from reserves. The audit report reported a deficit of $14,373. The Association’s year-end financial results are better than the budgeted deficit, primarily as a result of interest on investments and higher-than-expected revenue from the Saskatoon AGM. In addition, there were significant cost savings realized in the areas of Directors’ meetings ($11,658), Conventions and Conferences ($19,570), and Political Advocacy ($14,700).
Toonies for Tuition
Charitable Foundation and Endowment Fund Committee
Students in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario are blessed to have publicly-funded Catholic education. Many families in other parts of Canada make the selfless sacrifice to provide their children with a high-quality Catholic education through paying tuition. Across the country, over the school year, schools and school boards participated in fundraising campaigns to raise funds for the Toonies for Tuition initiative to help share the gift of Catholic education in provinces with limited or no public funding.
The Endowment Fund Committee is extremely grateful to everyone who generously donated funds to Toonies for Tuition over this past year. The committee reviews and distributes the funds in accordance with the Endowment Fund Guidelines. The members of the Committee are Tom D’Amico, Chair (ON), Gerald Bernakevitch (AB/NWT/Yukon), Marino Gazzola (ON), and Delmer Wagner (SK). Administration: Rose Burton Spohn, Michelle Collett.
For the 2024-2025 school year, the Charitable Foundation will distribute approximately $134,000 in tuition assistance, which is enough money to fund 36% of the requests received!
Trophy Challenge
Each year, the CCSTA awards plaques during the AGM & Convention to the funded board and the funded province which have collected the most in donations per-capita towards the Toonies for Tuition initiative.
President Chiarella announced and congratulated the winners for 2024-2025:
- School Board/Division – Prince Albert Catholic School Division (SK)
- Province – Saskatchewan
CCSTA is grateful for the incredible support from school divisions and districts across the country towards this important initiative. As a result of everyone’s generosity, many children will be blessed with the gift of growing, learning, and living in Christ within a Catholic school environment.
Future Conference and AGM Dates
2025
Dates: June 5-7, 2025
Hosts: Roman Catholic Independent Schools Association – Atlantic Region
Location: Harbourfront Marriott – Halifax, Nova Scotia
2026
Dates: June 4-6, 2026
Hosts: Manitoba Catholic Schools
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
CCSTA is currently seeking a host for 2027. If your province, organization, division or district is interested in hosting an upcoming AGM & Conference, please contact the CCSTA office.
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