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‘Our graduation rates increase year after year,’ says Catholic school board official

H-SCDSB will also perform several upgrades at its schools
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“All in all, I do want to highlight that our graduation rates have continued to increase year after year for students who remain with our board,” said Danny Viotto, Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) superintendent of education, addressing board administrators and trustees at their first regular meeting of 2022 held virtually Wednesday.

A look at students who entered Grade 9 within the Huron-Superior board in September 2015 for the 2015-16 school year, based on information recently released by the Ontario Ministry of Education, shows the board is on par or even better than the provincial average when it comes to graduation numbers.

The numbers show that 85.6 per cent of the 305 students in the 2015-16 cohort graduated within four years and 89.6 per cent of them graduated within five years, a written report to the board from Viotto stated. 

“The provincial graduation rate for this same cohort of students is 82.2 per cent (four-year rate) and 88.1 per cent (five-year rate),” the report reads.

While crediting the hard work of students and the role their educators played, Viotto told the board Wednesday that several factors are included in the successful Huron-Superior graduation rate for the 2015-16 cohort.

Viotto said they include the variety of courses - locally developed - available to students and individualized timetables for students with various needs.

“The data has clearly reflected that students who stay with us have a significantly higher chance of graduating,” Viotto said.

Meanwhile, Steve Brown, H-SCDSB manager of plant services, told the board Wednesday that $6.6 million is available for capital funding projects for the board’s schools for the 2021-22 school year.

“The common theme this year is ventilation upgrades, hopefully to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” Brown said.

Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Chapleau, for example, will be upgraded at a cost of $720,000.

Several other schools will receive ventilation and washroom upgrades, parking lot and bus bay upgrades and JK/SK play area upgrades, Brown said.



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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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