The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999) is an English-language public-separate school board for

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, headquartered in

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

. It is one of the two English boards of education serving the city of Toronto. The board was founded on April 2, 1953 as the Metropolitan Separate School Board (MSSB) when nearby separate school districts were amalgamated as a singular separate school board in

Metro Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an Regional municipality, upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the Old Toronto, old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and vill ...

. In addition to English-language schools, the board also operated a handful of French-language schools by the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Grand Toronto (CECGT), the board's French unit. In 1998, the MSSB was renamed and reorganized into the Toronto Catholic District School Board leaving the board with anglophone schools while the francophone schools that were previously operated by CECGT were amalgamated with nearby French school boards in the region to form

Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir (also referred to as Csc MonAvenir) is a French-language Catholic school board that manages elementary and secondary French schools in South-Central Ontario. The school board operates 47 elementary schools, 12 ...

. With more than 84,000 students, the TCDSB is one of the largest school boards in Canada, and is the largest publicly funded Catholic school board in the world.

History

On April 2, 1953, the ''Metropolitan Separate School Board'' (), officially known as the Metropolitan Toronto Roman Catholic Separate School Board (MTRCSSB) was formed as the governing body of all publicly funded.

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

schools in Toronto through the merger of several separate boards in

. The merger was passed through Bill 37, the Metropolitan Separate School Board Act. At its peak in 1990, the board operated 185 anglophone and six francophone elementary schools and 41 anglophone and one francophone secondary schools with 100,000 total students. The MSSB took over seven high schools transferred from the Metropolitan Toronto School Board (MTSB) in 1988, with one of them being a francophone Catholic high school, the institution that has been lost since 1968. The MSSB was the largest school board in Canada at the time. In 1997, as a result of Bill 104, the ''Fewer School Boards Act'', the boards were reorganized resulting in the separation of English and

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

schools. The MSSB became known as ''English-language Separate District School Board No. 40'' and renamed itself to the ''Toronto Catholic District School Board'' in 1999 while the former ''Section de langue française'' unit became part of the new ''French-language Separate District School Board No. 64'' which later became

. The board headquarters were located on Duke Street, then Jarvis Street, and the MSSB moved its operations in 1964 to 150 Laird Drive, the former headquarters of

Durant Motors Durant Motors Inc. was established in 1921 by former General Motors CEO William "Billy" Durant following his termination by the GM board of directors and the New York bankers who financed GM. Corporate relationships Durant Motors attempted t ...

and later, Imperial Oil. In 1982, the board moved to its current administrative headquarters and offices on 80 Sheppard Avenue East. The school board also had the offices for ''Section de langue française'' on Drewry Avenue, opened in 1989 in the former Lewis S. Beattie Secondary School, though it has since been occupied by Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir as its administrative offices.

Organization

The Toronto Catholic District School Board mission statement that nurtures "the faith development and academic excellence of our Catholic learning community through the love of God, neighbour, and self." The vision encourages learning communities of the Board to follow God's Image that grows in "Knowledge, with Justice and Hope." The school board is governed by 12 elected trustees who serve for a four-year term. Each year one secondary school student is selected to serve on the board as a student trustee (who is not entitled to vote). The chair of the board, the vice-chair, and the honorary treasurer are elected at the inaugural meeting of the board, and serve for one year. As of November 2024, Markus de Domenico serves as chair, and Kevin Morrison serves as vice-chair. Trustees are paid $18,500 a year in salary, and can claim up to $18,000 for expenses. Prior to the 1998 separation of French-language schools, the Metropolitan Separate School Board had three French language seats. The policies of the Board are administered by the Director of Education and designates. There are more than 91,000 students serving over 195 Catholic schools, and represent close to 475,000 Catholic school supporters in all of Toronto. The TCDSB also has staff consisting of 6,000 teachers, 2,800 support staff, 360 principals and vice principals, and 200 administrators. In addition, the Board operates standing three committees: the ''Student Achievement and Well Being, Catholic Education and Human Resources'', ''Corporate Affairs, Strategic Planning and Property'', & ''Governance Framework''.

Trustees

As of , the trustee boundaries are aligned with the municipal wards, which was realigned to match with the federal and provincial ward boundaries.

Chairs of the Board

''Italics'' indicate the trustee remains active. *Averell Robinson, Q.C. - 1953–1954; Original chair of the MSSB *Rev. Msgr. Hugh Callaghan, D.P. - 1954–1955 *Gerard Godin - 1956–1957 *Georges B. Heenan - 1958–1959 *Michael J. Duggan - 1960–1962 *Edward J. Brisbois - 1963–1965 *Dr. John J. Andrachuk - 1966–1967 *Rev. Msgr. Percy H. Johnson, P.H. 1968–1969; School named after him. *J.A. Fullerton - 1970–1971 *J.A. Marrese - 1972–1974 *Joseph Grittani - 1975–1976 *Rev. E.F. Boehler - 1977–1978 *Bruno M. Suppa - 1979–1980 *Paul J. Duggan - 1981–1982 *Edward T. McMahon - 1983–1984; 1996–1997 *Rev. E.F. Boehler - 1984–1985 *Rev. C. Matthews, S.J. - 1985–1986 *Caroline M. DiGiovanni - 1986–1988 *Michael Lofranco - 1988–1989 *Donald E. Clune - 1989–1992 *Elvira DeMonte - 1992–1994 *Paul B.R. Fernandes - 1994–1996 *''Joseph Martino'' - 1997–1999 - Last chair as MSSB and first chair of the reorganized TCDSB. *Rose Andrachuk - 1999–2000 *'' Mike Del Grande'' - 2000–2001 - Later became city councilor; 2014–2015 *Joseph Carnevale - 2001–2003; *Oliver Carroll - 2003–2007 - Ousted in early 2009 for conflict of interest charges. Now serves as a teacher for the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

since 2010 and teaches at Scarborough Centre for Alternative Studies from 2012 onwards. *Catherine LeBlanc-Miller - 2008–2009 *Angela Kennedy - 2009–2010 - later removed by the judge and was later re-elected; 2015–2016 *''Ann Andrachuk'' - 2010-2013 *''Jo-Ann Davis'' - 2013–2014 *''Barbara Poplawski'' - 2017–18 *Maria Rizzo - 2018-2019 *Angela Kennedy - 2019-2020 *Joe Martino - 2020-2022 *Nancy Crawford - 2022-24 *Markus de Domenico - 2024 to Present

Directors of Education

Current

The current director of education is Dr. Brendan Browne, who was appointed in 2020. Prior to his appointment, Browne served as the central superintendent for the

covering schools in most of the former

and

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

Past directors

*B. E. Nelligan - 1965–1983 *Berchman Kipp - 1983–1989 *Tony Barone - 1989–1996 *Norm Forma - 1996–1997 *Johanne Stewart - 1997–2001 *Tom Donavan - 2001–2005 *Noel Martin (Acting) - 2005 *Kevin Kobus - 2005–2007 *Les Nemes - 2007–2009 *Ann Perron - 2009–2011 *Bruce Rodrigues - 2011–2013 (now CEO at

EQAO The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO, , OQRE) is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario in Canada. It was legislated into creation in 1996 in response to recommendations made by the Royal Commission on Learning in February ...

) *Angela Gauthier - 2013-2017 (served as Interim Director in 2011) *Rory McGuckin - 2017-2020 *Brendan Browne - 2020 to present

Charity

The Angel Foundation for Learning (AFL) is a TCDSB-organized charity that was founded on April 23, 1987, as the Metropolitan Toronto Catholic Education Foundation (MTCEF, ) to serve and support the needs of the education of younger Roman Catholic students in the City of Toronto.

School building architecture

Like the TDSB-built schools, 70% of the TCDSB stock of school buildings outside of the old City of Toronto were built after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and during the 1950s. These are typically

Mid-Century modern Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was present in all the world, but more popular in North America, Brazil and Europe from roughly 1945 to 197 ...

in style with two to three storey brick facade and large double hung windows albeit from the cross attached. Some are built in Tudor Gothic style ones in the late 1800s.

Schools

School bus transportation

The following service providers have been contracted by the school board: * Attridge Transportation * Dignity Transportation * First Student Canada *

McCluskey Transportation Services Pacific Western Transportation (also d/b/a P.W. Transportation) provides a variety of bus services in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Yukon. Depending on the location, it offers scheduled and charter ...

* Sharp Bus Lines *

Stock Transportation National Passenger Services, d/b/a Stock Transportation, is a Canadian school bus operator based in Markham, Ontario. The company provides student transportation and charter services for twenty-eight school districts in Ontario, Nova Scotia a ...

* Switzer-Carty Transportation *

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the primary public transport agency in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operating the majority of the city's transit bus, bus and rail services. It is the oldest and largest of the urban transit service providers ...

* Wheelchair Accessible Transit

Uniforms

Uniforms are mandatory for students at the secondary level and elementary starting in the fall 2011. In 2010 some elementary schools started implementing use of uniforms. In 1988, the MSSB ruled that public separate high schools are required to wear uniforms. At the time, all of the high schools in

except for

Newman Newman is a surname of Germanic Anglo-Saxon origins. Newman is the modern English form of the name used in Great Britain and among people of British ancestry around the world (as is 'Numan'), while Neumann (with variant spellings) is used in Ger ...

had uniforms. Some trustees anticipated protests from parents and students from Newman. , all TCDSB elementary students must wear a uniform of a white or navy blue top, and navy blue bottoms. This is enforced in special programs such as the gifted program and ME.

Controversies

Enrolment of non-Catholics

While Catholic high schools are funded by the provincial government, making them open to any students who wish to attend, elementary schools do not have to enrol non-Catholic students. Many argue that the practice of fully funding separate schools exclusively for the Catholic faith is discriminatory to other religions (the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

has twice chastised the province for this policy). Supporters of the current Catholic education system point out that it has existed, in one form or another, since Confederation, and that the

Constitution Act, 1867 The ''Constitution Act, 1867'' ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 3) (),''The Constitution Act, 1867'', 30 & 31 Victoria (U.K.), c. 3, http://canlii.ca/t/ldsw retrieved on 2019-03-14. originally enacted as the ''British North America Act, 1867'' (BNA Act), ...

enshrines the right to government-funded religious education to all Catholics. The opposition, however, argues that this is an

appeal to tradition Appeal to tradition (also known as ''argumentum ad antiquitatem'' or ''argumentum ad antiquitam'', appeal to antiquity, or appeal to common practice) is a claim in which a thesis is deemed correct on the basis of correlation with past or present t ...

, and point to other provinces in Canada which amended the constitution to abolish Catholic school funding. It is up to the school principal whether or not non-Catholics are enrolled.

Government funding

Recently, the issue of government funding for religious schools has become a major political issue (see

2007 Ontario general election The 2007 Ontario general election was held on October 10, 2007, to elect members ( MPPs) of the 39th Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The Liberals under Premier Dalton McGuinty won the election with a majority government ...

), with PC Party Leader

John Tory John Howard Tory (born May 28, 1954) is a Canadian lawyer, broadcaster, businessman, and former politician who served as the 65th mayor of Toronto from 2014 to 2023. He served as leader of the Official Opposition in Ontario from 2005 to 2007 ...

supporting an extension of funding to all religious schools, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals and Howard Hampton's NDP supporting the status quo, and Frank de Jong's Greens alone calling for elimination of public funding for all religious schools (including Catholic Schools).

Labour issues

The first strikes occurred on April 5–11, 1986 when 6,000 teachers of the Metro Separate School Board went on

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

with over 100,000 students affected. From August 2002, the Toronto Catholic elementary teachers were without a contract and imposed

work to rule Work-to-rule, also known as an Italian strike or a slowdown in United States usage, called in Italian a ''sciopero bianco'' meaning "white strike", is a job action in which employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of their co ...

beginning February 2003. With stalled negotiations, the TCDSB officially locked out the teachers on May 16, 2003, and the strike lasted 12 days which left 69,000 students affected. The lockout ended when the Ontario government enacted back-to-work legislation on June 3, 2003. Conflict arose once again when the TCDSB elementary teachers imposed work to rule once more in 2016. Again in 2021, during the middle of a pandemic, teachers imposed work to rule, leaving report cards blank and ordering their members to not help in distribution of their students personal belongs in June 2021, without resolution in sight as of August 2021.

Trustee spending scandal

The board was embroiled in controversy in May 2008 when a report commissioned by the provincial government uncovered spending abuses by certain trustees, including charges for meals, promotional materials, and prohibited benefits. Provincial supervisor

Norbert Hartmann Norbert is a Germanic given name and infrequent surname, from '' nord'' "north" and ''berht'' "bright". People with the given name Academia * Norbert Angermann (born 1936), German historian * Norbert A’Campo (born 1941), Swiss mathematician * ...

was appointed to oversee administration of the board as a result.

Incidents between students and faculty

During a school trip organized by Holy Spirit Catholic School's eighth-grade students, vice-principal Stephen Patel threw a shoe at 14-year-old student Ian Goulbourne, hitting him in the forehead while on an excursion in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

on the school bus on April 24, 2013. Goulborune was taken to the

Montreal Children's Hospital Montreal Children's Hospital () is a children's hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1904, it is affiliated with the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University, Faculty of Medicine. The hospital has 154 single-pati ...

to be treated and Patel was sent home the next day on the

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

train on paid leave by the TCDSB while it investigated such incident. A few weeks later, Ferdinando Marrello, a teacher at Monsignor Fraser College was charged with allegations of assaulting a female student who was grabbed by the throat and punched in the face. In August 2018, Gerry McGilly, 47-year-old former English teacher at Bishop Allen Academy was sentenced to 2–3 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to luring, making

child pornography Child pornography (also abbreviated as CP, also called child porn or kiddie porn, and child sexual abuse material, known by the acronym CSAM (underscoring that children can not be deemed willing participants under law)), is Eroticism, erotic ma ...

and sexual exploitation of his students, including three 17-year-old victims, dated between 2014 and 2017. On May 1, 2019,

Toronto Police The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police se ...

formally charged 35-year-old Justin Iozzo, teacher of

Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School and Regional Arts Centre (also known as Father John Redmond, Father John Redmond CSS and RAC, FJRCSS, FJR, or Redmond in short) is a Catholic Church, Catholic high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I ...

of one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference that occurred in December 2016 when a student was assaulted on school property. Iozzo had been employed by the Board since 2012 and started his teaching career at Stella Maris and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Schools. However, thirteen days later, Toronto Police arrested 36-year-old Brian Ross, a teacher and coach at

Senator O'Connor College School Senator O'Connor College School (also called SOCS, Senator O'Connor CS, Senator O'Connor, OCS, or simply Senator or O'Connor), previously known as John J. Lynch High School until 1967 is a Separate school, Separate High school#Canada, high school i ...

, who is facing charges of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

stemming from a string of incidents during the 2011–12 academic year including a 16-year-old female student being assaulted during his 10-year tenure at

Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School (Marshall McLuhan, MMCSS, Marshall McLuhan CSS, or McLuhan) is a coeducational, non-semestered, Catholic high school in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada managed by the Toronto Catholic District School B ...

and another in March 2017.

LGBT issues

The TCDSB has a number of issues with the LGBT communities and the Roman Catholic education in Toronto. In May 2013, two trustees, Gary Tanuan and John Del Grande, the son of Mike Del Grande, passed a motion to eliminate Gay-straight alliances in all TCDSB schools. The motion stated that the "Toronto Catholic District School Board schools shall have no Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs or similar." Tanuan's motion stemmed from a report for all anti-bullying clubs to adhere to the "Respecting Difference" report issued by the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association in January 2012. This report offered guidelines for Catholic schools that included calling groups like GSAs "Respecting Differences" clubs and avoiding discussions of sexual attraction, political activism and gender identity. However, in November 2020, the TCDSB imposed sanctions against Mike Del Grande over the LGBT2Q+ comments during the November 7, 2019 meeting for comparing homosexuality to bestiality, pedophilia and cannibalism. Del Grande violated the code of conduct for trustees even though he was acting within his role as a trustee to debate the motion. On January 8, 2021, the TCDSB removed the

Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Youth Line The Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Youth Line (LGBT YouthLine, "YouthLine"), founded in 1994, is a peer support organization for LGBT youth across the province of Ontario. Although originally known for their phone support line, the organization also offers o ...

, a phone peer support line for youth, from their online mental health resource list for students. The removal of YouthLine coincided the same time as when

Joe Volpe Giuseppe "Joe" Volpe (born September 21, 1947) is a Canadian politician. He represented the Ontario riding of Eglinton-Lawrence as a member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until 2011, when he lost his seat t ...

ran an opinion piece in

Corriere Canadese ''Corriere Canadese'' ("The Canadian Courier") is an Italian language, Italian-language daily newspaper published in Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The publication is distributed exclusively in Ontario and Quebec, primarily throughout the Gr ...

purporting that YouthLine is inappropriate. YouthLine refuted Volpe's article, calling it "homophobic, transphobic, and racist." YouthLine reaffirmed that their anonymous services provide queer, transgender and questioning youth much needed information and resources.

Pride Toronto Pride Toronto is an annual event held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in June each year to celebrate the LGBTQ community in the Greater Toronto Area. The centre of the festival is the city's Church and Wellesley village, while the parade and m ...

called TCDSB's decision "another example of systemic homophobia and transphobia that continues to run deep within the publicly-funded school board." In May 2022, Youthline and the other defendants won their case in the

Ontario Superior Court of Justice The Superior Court of Justice (French: ''Cour supérieure de justice'') is a superior court in Ontario. The Court sits in 52 locations across the province, including 17 Family Court locations, and consists of over 300 federally appointed judges. ...

, and all of Volpe's charges against them were dropped. On May 6, 2021, the TCDSB voted to recognize June as Pride Month and the raising of the LGBT rainbow flag in all schools and board offices for the first time since the board's inception in 1953. The move comes after

Halton Catholic District School Board The Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) serves over 37,000 students at its 46 elementary schools, 9 secondary schools and 3 continuing education facilities. The HCDSB serves the communities of Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton, and Oakvi ...

rejected the vote on raising the gay flag while the

Waterloo Catholic District School Board Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) is a school board serving the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is headquartered in Kitchener, and is the seventh largest Catholic school system in Ontario. As of 2025, the Board operates 44 ...

approved the raising of the rainbow flag a month prior.

Logo

The official symbol of the Toronto Catholic District School Board was designed in 1969 by the internationally recognized design artist, Allan Fleming, who designed the

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

logo. It combines the cross, the anchor, and the heart representing the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. It is based on the cross and anchor symbol used by the early Christians in the catacombs, the added heart representing humanity.

References

External links

Toronto Catholic District School Board

Toronto Catholic District School Board
(1998–1999 archive, using Metropolitan Separate School Board website domain)
Angel Foundation for Learning
{{Authority control 1953 establishments in Ontario Christian education in Canada Organizations established in 1953 Roman Catholic school districts in Ontario Schools in Toronto Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto