DG Report September 2025

September has been a month of settling in, establishing new routines, getting reacquainted with old friends and meeting new students and staff. My report this month will focus on some of the highlights of the past few weeks. 

Overall, we had a good start to the new school year. This month, I visited a number of elementary schools and attended the Macdonald HS graduation. In particular, I wish to thank Principal France Poirier and the staff at Dorval Elementary for welcoming me on the first day of school; I enjoyed getting to say hello to parents and staff while helping to welcome students back to school. It is always wonderful to witness the joy with which children greet friends and former teachers after the summer break, and it is equally touching to see the care and concern staff show toward students who may be hesitant or nervous on the first day of school. School visits are an important part of my role as Director General, and I look forward to my ongoing visits with staff and students throughout the year. Recently, while visiting with the Central Students’ Committee, I was fortunate to meet some of our students, two of whom are here tonight to be sworn in as student commissioners. Congratulations again to Seif and Eliza, we are looking forward to having you with us around the Council table this year.  

Recently, Commissioner Allison Saunders and I attended a soirée hosted by the West Island Black Community Association. WIBCA has a robust scholarship program to recognize achievements and promote academic excellence among Black youth.  This year, two of the scholarships were awarded to Lester B. Pearson students. Keirah Scott, 2025 graduate of Macdonald High School, was the recipient of the award designated for a high school student of strong academic standing now pursuing post-secondary studies. Jethro Alcimerome, a very accomplished student in the Plumbing and Heating program at VACC, received the scholarship designated for a student completing studies in vocational training or adult education. It was a pleasure to see Keirah again and to meet Jethro. Congratulations and best of luck to them as they continue their studies. 

The back-to-school routines have solidified for the adults as well – staff in our schools and centres have worked hard to organize the meet the teacher night and other back-to-school events. Thank you to all of the Lester B. Pearson team for helping to strengthen our sense of community and for infusing feelings of pride and school spirit into our learning environments. 

A familiar ritual that takes place each fall in many schools and centres is the Terry Fox Run, an event that raises funds for cancer research. Terry Fox began his heroic quest to run across Canada 45 years ago, and the tradition of students and staff doing a walk or run in support of the Terry Fox Foundation is deeply entrenched in our school board culture. I am very proud to share the news that since the inception of the run, Leste B. Pearson schools, centres and Head Office have raised over $5 million dollars for the Terry Fox Foundation. Thank you to everyone who helps to organize this fundraising event, and thank you to our parents and community for supporting the Terry Fox Run. We are proud to have an elementary school named after Terry Fox in Pierrefonds, but all of our schools and centres hold this Canadian hero in high regard and seek to emulate the grit, compassion and resilience that he displayed.  

In talking about resilience, I would be remiss if I did not mention one of our recent challenges that required many to adapt quickly and demonstrate patience in the face of adversity. The recent interruption in transportation services for students who travel to and from school on electric busses was a trying experience. We wish to thank parents and students for their understanding and patience as we navigated through several days of service disruption. This was a high priority safety issue that required close monitoring and action.  We are happy that the situation has been rectified and that all busses are now back on the road.  For our students who travel to school using public transportation, we know that the current STM labour dispute has altered your travel. We are hopeful that a resolution will be found soon. In the meantime, our transportation services staff remain in contact with STM officials so we can bring news to our community as quickly as possible.

I would like to take a moment to publicly thank our teams in both Transportation Services and Communications and Community Development. Throughout these transportation challenges, our staff worked tirelessly to stay in touch with necessary partners and craft messages that were shared out to our system. Behind the scenes, our operations truly ran pretty close to 24-7, and I am deeply appreciative that our teams worked long into the night and sometimes into the early hours of the morning to ensure everyone stayed informed of the latest developments. 

September comes to a close on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Many of our schools and centres have created displays, organized assemblies and other activities such as Orange Shirt Day that will take place over the next few days. I wish to thank the staff in our schools and centres as well as several Departments at Head Office, notably the Communications and Community Development as well as the Educational and Student Services Departments for helping us all learn more about the impact of the residential school experience and the current realities of Indigenous peoples so that we can truly move towards healing and reconciliation.  In the words of the late Justice Murray Sinclair: “Remember, reconciliation is yours to achieve. We owe it to each other to build a Canada based on our shared future, a future of healing and trust.”