The appointment is effective May 23. “Troy brings knowledge, experience, and continuity to the Division while Jamie recovers from surgery,” says Sandra Bannard, Board Chair. “Jamie will resume his Superintendent duties upon his return.”

Davies has been with STAR Catholic Schools since January 2010 and is presently the Assistant Superintendent responsible for Human Resources and Learning Services.

St. Thomas Aquinas Roman (STAR) Catholic School Division is a Christ-centered Catholic community committed to providing the highest quality education to 3,000 students. STAR serves the Catholic communities of Beaumont, Drayton Valley, Lacombe, Leduc, Ponoka, and Wetaskiwin.
For media inquiries, contact:

Sandra Bannard, Board Chair
St. Thomas Aquinas Roman (STAR) Catholic Board
Tel: 780.986.2500
Email: Sandra.bannard@starcatholic.ab.ca

Wetaskiwin Ward Trustee

Bill 2 has the potential to seriously affect publicly funded Catholic education in Alberta:

How?

Bill 2 would allow the Minister to share Catholic & Public schools with each other.

Bill 2 would allow the Minister to combine Catholic school boards with Public schools boards into a blended board.

These changes would affect Catholic school boards, Catholic schools, teachers, staff, and students.

The Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association (ACSTA) is urging you to get involved and take action, we are aware that the ACSTA is currently dialoging with Education Minister Lukaszuk.  

STAR Bill 2 & You
ACSTA Community Key Messages
ACSTA Handbill

Results for the 2010/11 school year were recently made available. Results for grades 3 and 6 were extremely positive. On all 6 exams written the percentage of students from STAR Catholic who achieved the acceptable standard exceeded the provincial average of students who did the same. Respectively, 92% of grade 3 students and 85% of grade 6 students in STAR division passed their exams. This exceeds the provincial average for both grades.

Grade 9 test results, however, were down slightly for the division, with the number of students meeting the acceptable standard coming in at 78.2%, whereas 80.4% of grade 9 students across the province met the standard.

At the grade 12 level students surpassed the provincial average on 6 of 10 grade 12 diploma exams, and did so by a typical margin of 2.1%. Overall, 82.9% of STAR students met the acceptable standard on the diploma exams, which was 0.3% higher than the provincial average of 82.6% of students who met the same standard.

Analyzing these results, Assistant Superintendent Troy Davies comments, “Our terrific results in elementary language arts are proof that our AISI three year focus on literacy and teaching reading strategies is paying dividends. The number of students we have meeting the acceptable standard in grade 3 and grade 6 reading scores continues its trend upwards, is higher than it has ever been in the previous 5 years, and exceeds the provincial average by a noticeable margin.” Davies goes on to add, “At the grade 12 level there are also some really special items of note that have occurred in Chemistry 30, Physics 30, English 30-1 & -2, Pure Math 30, and Science 30, where our acceptable rates this past year are higher than they’ve been for any of the previous 5 years. What’s more is that on three of these exams 100% of our students who wrote the exam met the acceptable standard.”

Leduc, Alberta: The St. Thomas Aquinas Roman (STAR) Catholic School Division’s final student count is in and registrations are up 11.54% or 308 students.

“Total registrations have exceeded expectations,” says Superintendent Jamie McNamara. “More students and families in all our communities are choosing Catholic education.”

Higher student enrolments provide many benefits for students and schools. Each school division is provided a per student grant for every full-time equivalent (FTE) student from Early Childhood Services (ECS) to Grade 9. For students in Grades 10 to 12, instructional funding is provided based on Credit Enrolment Units (CEUs). “The more students we have the more programs and services we are able to provide to meet all of our students’ needs,” says McNamara.

Higher registrations pose challenges to school space. “We do have some large class sizes across the Division,” adds McNamara. Increased student population growth is most noticeable in Leduc and Beaumont schools, including Notre Dame, St. Benedict, Christ The King and Académie Saint-André Academy. “STAR Catholic continues to press our MLAs, Minister of Education and will be looking to Premier Alison Redford to help us address crowded schools and large class sizes,” adds Sandra Bannard, STAR Catholic Board Chair.

“To put this increase into perspective, the student increase represents enough students for a small school,” said Sandra Bannard, STAR Board Chair. “It is a 6 per cent increase across the Division.” The biggest increases are in St. Anthony in Drayton Valley (12 per cent); Christ The King (5 per cent) and St. Benedict (5 per cent) in Leduc; and, Sacred Heart (8 per cent) in Wetaskiwin. Académie Saint-André Academy’s enrollment jumped 126 per cent as new grades and classes were added.

With concerns about province-wide class sizes increasing due to the reduction of the class size initiative grant, STAR has not been spared, as increased registrations will increase class sizes. “Most of our increases can be managed within our existing classes, however we do have some large class sizes across the Division,” adds Superintendent Jamie McNamara.

Going forward, STAR faces a significant challenge in Leduc: student population growth. Notre Dame, St. Benedict and Christ The King are beyond their capacity. “We continue to press government for an additional school in Leduc to meet the growing population,” states Bannard. “We will continue to advocate on behalf of our students and their families.” “We encourage parents to express their concerns regarding crowded schools and large class sizes to their local MLA.”