Boardroom Briefs June 18, 2025

Trustee Ruttan provided the Private Session report for June 18, 2025:

At the Special Meeting of the Board, May 27, 2025: Director Burra provided a personnel update.

At the Education, Policy, and Operations Meeting, June 4, 2025: Director Burra provided a personnel update

Earlier this evening during Private Session:

The Private Session minutes were approved from the following:

• The May 21, 2025, Regular Board Meeting
• The May 27, 2025, Special Meeting of the Board
• The June 4, 2025, Education, Policy, and Operations Committee Meeting

Associate Superintendent Gollogly provided a Safe Schools update.

Trustee Lloyd provided a personnel update which resulted in a motion being passed.

There was no other business conducted, or motions passed in Private Session.

Vice-Chair Godkin provided the following report:

"As we approach the end of another remarkable school year, I want to take a moment to reflect on and celebrate the incredible efforts and achievements of our Limestone community.

June marks not only the closing of the academic year but also a time of celebration, reflection, and gratitude. Across our district, students have been wrapping up their studies, showcasing their learning, and participating in a wide range of extracurricular activities that highlight their creativity, leadership, and school spirit.

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to our students for their resilience, enthusiasm, and dedication throughout the year. Your hard work and perseverance have been truly inspiring.

To our educators, support staff, and administrators—thank you for your unwavering commitment to student success. Your passion and professionalism continue to shape a learning environment where every student feels supported and empowered.

To our families and caregivers—your partnership and encouragement have been vital. Thank you for being such an integral part of our students’ journeys.

This month, we’ve also seen vibrant celebrations of diversity and inclusion across the district. Pride events have brought our communities together in powerful and joyful ways. A special thank you to everyone who participated in the Greater Napanee Pride Parade and the Kingston Pride Parade. Your presence and support send a strong message of love, acceptance, and unity.

We were also proud to support the second annual Inclusive Fun Fair hosted by the Inclusive Play Project at Shannon Park on June 7. This free, family-friendly event brought together community members of all ages and abilities to celebrate inclusion, accessibility, and connection. With live entertainment, a bustling vendor market, interactive games, and a vibrant KidsZone, the fair raised awareness and funds for Kingston’s first fully inclusive playground. Events like this remind us of the power of community and the importance of creating spaces where everyone feels welcome and valued 

As we look ahead to the final days of the semester, let’s continue to lift each other up and celebrate the many successes—big and small—that have defined this school year.

Wishing everyone a safe, restful, and joyful summer ahead."

Director Burra provided the following report:

"Good evening, Trustees and the viewing public. I am pleased to provide you with my update tonight as we enter the last ten days of the 2024-2025 school year.

June is always a time of reflection as we complete one school year and continue preparations for the next school year. It is a time of change as we see students graduate from secondary school, staff retire, and many staff and students prepare for transitions. It is also a time of celebration across the system as students graduate and enjoy end-of-year activities and celebrations. We were able to enjoy some celebrations this evening with the annual Limestone Staff Awards. This evening, we heard and saw, some great examples of people focused on doing the very best they can to support students and learning in LDSB.

In recent weeks and months, many graduating Limestone students have received significant scholarships and admissions to universities, colleges, and apprenticeships or have developed work plans for next year. I would be remiss to not mention the fact that Student Trustee Bukhari deserves to be recognized for being a TD Scholarship recipient, and the Trustee Laurie French Student Leadership Award from the Community Foundation for Lennox and Addington. Congratulations Student Trustee Bukhari. With secondary graduations just over a week away, I know Trustees and senior staff can look forward to hearing the plans of LDSB grads at those celebrations and honouring the graduates of 2025.

I would also like to highlight for Trustees the tremendous success Limestone athletes experienced at the provincial finals in Track and Field. Wyatt Lee from FSS won gold in the Senior Boys 100m and 200m, Athena Andrecyk from KSS won gold in the Senior Girls 3000m, and the Junior Girls 4x100m relay team from KSS also won gold. That team consisted of Caitlyn Wimmer, Mara Barrow-McLagan, Amaya Barrow-McLagan and Marina Playter-Tuffs. Limestone students also won two silver medals and four bronze medals. I should note that the LSS Senior Boys won provincial AA gold. I should also note that LSS and KSS hosted provincial soccer championships. Congratulations to these winners and all of the other LDSB athletes who participated in the provincial finals.

In reflecting on the 2024-2025 school year, or any other school year, I think it is important to again remember Kathy Freston’s wise words: “The goal is progress, not perfection.” In education, the stakes are always high for each learner, and there is always more we can do to serve each student. While there is always much to celebrate, there is also always room for improvement in realizing our LDSB intention of making a positive difference in the lives of every student, in every classroom, in every school.

Given June is National Indigenous History Month, and Saturday is National Indigenous Peoples Day, Trustees should be aware that there are a range of activities occurring in the community this weekend, and at Confederation Park. This information has been shared with schools.

As Trustees are aware, June is also Pride month, and like the last few years, Limestone formally participated in the fourth annual Napanee Pride Parade earlier this month, which was a great success, and we also had a very strong presence this past weekend for the Kingston Pride Parade. We must continue to take a strong stance in support of human rights, and against hate in the communities we serve.

In closing, I want to offer my congratulations to all students graduating from Limestone and to staff entering their last ten days of work with Limestone. There is much to be proud of in Limestone and I have a great deal of gratitude and humility in serving as its Director. Thank you also to the Board of Trustees for your continued collaboration, strong support of public education, and advocacy. While all of us around this table may not always agree on everything, I think we can all be proud of the way we conduct ourselves and work together for the betterment of Limestone students. Thank you, Trustees. That concludes my report for this evening."

Chair McGregor provided an OPSBA report.

Student Trustee Kolosov provide the Student Trustees' Report.

We had our last Inter-School Council (ISC) meeting on the third of this month. At this meeting, we celebrated our success as a group this past school year, where the school representatives from each school brought their incoming reps for next year. This gave us the chance to meet and get to know our ISC team for next year.

On June 10, after a lot of hard work from ISC members, we were able to run the LDSB Community Pride Event. During this event, we had a number of school groups coming in to host tables with some arts, crafts, and games, as well as community organizations like the Kingston Public Library. We were also thrilled to have the Queens Faculty of Education GSA come in, as well as Kingston Youth Pride, and LDSB’s Alyssa Vernon who did some collaging with guests.

Student-run booths included face painting, flag painting, bracelet and keychain making, and more. It was such an amazing experience to see all of the students and families coming together to enjoy an evening of celebration to kick off Pride Month. We would like to extend a big thank you to all of the community members who came in, staff who helped support the event, the KSS custodial team for helping set up, and all of the students who helped make the event possible and the great success it was!

We also had Pat Vanderholst do a PD session on Indigenous land teachings, with a tour around Lake Ontario Park, sharing different teachings connected to the land. On behalf of ISC, I’d like to thank Pat for sharing his time and knowledge with us.

On behalf of the incoming Student Trustees, we look forward to what the next term of ISC will bring next school year!

Thank you!

This report updates Trusteed on the Integrated Technology Services (ITS) Operational Plan and how it supports the goals of the LDSB Strategic Plan. The report was presented by Kelvin MacQuarrie, Manager of Information and Communications Technology, Laura Alward, Manager of Innovation and Digital Transformation, and Steve Hedderson, Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Program Services: Math Focus.

ITS Operational Plan: The three departmental pillars of Customer Service Excellence, Data Integrity, and Learning Environment and Infrastructure Improvements continue to drive forward the team's main objective of supporting students and staff of LDSB within the 2023-2026 timeframe. These pillars help guide project priorities and business decisions and are a focus within the department’s operational plan.

The presentation outlined various initiatives, including:

• Learning Technology Refresh: Reliable Devices
• Learning Technology Ticket Counts by School Year
• Monitoring of Aging Classroom Projectors
• New Data Backup Solution
• Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Reporting Tool Efficiencies
• Elementary Staffing App Efficiencies
• Next Steps in Learning Technologies
• Supporting Monitoring of the Student Achievement Plan

The full report is available in the Agenda Package.

This report updates Trustees on the continued development of Limestone’s Math Achievement Action Plan.

Satellite data are high-level indicators that we are making progress towards our goal of improving math learning and achievement for every student.

Since the last update in March 2025:

• Additional meetings have been held with the Provincial Math Lead to discuss data analysis, impact of current improvement strategies, and key performance indicators to support the LDSB Math Achievement Action Plan
• Strategic planning sessions with other board Math Leads and teams from across the province
• School-Based Math Facilitators and Learning Partners have been supporting educators in schools in gathering content diagnostic data to plan for meaningful math learning and assist in closing achievement gaps, with particular attention on students with modifications or recently removed from modifications
• School-Based Math Facilitators and Learning Partners also continue to support math-related professional learning sessions for educators at staff meetings, “lunch and learns,” and Professional Activity Days
• Weekly meetings and capacity building with School Math Facilitators and ongoing learning and support for Learning Partners about the Math Achievement Action Plan strategies
• Professional learning focus on fluency tasks and supporting the use of concrete and visual representations for students
• Much more

Next Steps and Communications Plan:

• The Ministry confirmed that board will continue with Math Achievement Action Plans during the 2025-26 school year with the same priority schools
• Given the late arrival of the 2025-26 school year budget, the staffing of the 2025-26 Math Action Team is ongoing
• Share the final report on the 2024-25 LDSB Math Achievement Action Plan with the Provincial Math Action Team in mid-July
• Prepare for the introduction of targeted use of a new complementary digital math tool that uses AI to support the implementation of the LDSB Instructional Progression of Mathematics
• Much more

The full report is available in the Agenda Package.