By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On March 18, the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) held one of their monthly trustee meetings to discuss various items related to the board and its students.
Amanda Gonsalves, a curriculum consultant on equity and inclusive education, and Akiesha Newton-Williams, HCDSB’s graduation coach for Black students, presented a report on an update on the latter’s position as well as on the recently held Black Excellence Symposium.
The Graduation Coach Program for Black Students is currently in its third year of implementation, while the Symposium was held for the second time in two years.
Through the Graduation Coach Program, Newton-Williams mostly supports students at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Secondary School but has recently started working at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Secondary School as well. Gonsalves spearheaded the symposium.
Newton-Williams said that she recently implemented early intervention support as part of Tier 1 of the Graduation Coach Program, which is designed to meet the needs of grade 8 students transitioning to secondary school. Tier 1 is universal, and Newton-Williams said that about 70% of her students fall into that category.
Newton-Williams also attends Student Success meetings and helps students throughout March Break and the summer.
She said that about 25% of students fall into the second tier of support.
“Those are students that may have attendance issues and may be credit deficit,” Newton-Williams said. “And in that support, I give them leadership opportunities and work really closely with the Alt-Ed program to see how we can get some of those credits recovered.”
She said that about 5% of students she helps fall into the third tier and require very individualized support.
Newton-Williams showcased a photo of 17 lockers that were each decorated as tributes to books by Black authors.
“The program has a very strong presence in the school community,” Newton-Williams said.
“We have an increased number of students interested in leadership roles,” Newton-Williams said. “A lot of our students are asking to be involved with DECA, taking on leadership roles in our Black Student Union and other clubs in the school.”
Newton-Williams has overseen a 25-student increase in support for grade 9 students, along with 20 participants in the new grade 9 and 10 leadership program.
She currently supports 90 students from grades 9–12, with programming and workshops available from 13 different community organizations.
A St. Francis Xavier student in the program spoke about her experience in a video that was played as part of the presentation.
“I’ve benefited from the graduation coach program because I’ve always felt that within the school, there’s a special place that I can go to connect with people who look like me, learn more about my cultures, and have a space that cares about my well-being and my specific success as a Black student,” the student said.
Newton-Williams said that the work she does directly aligns with HCDSB’s goal of dismantling anti-Black racism as part of their new multi-year strategic plan for 2024–2028.
She spoke about all of the programs and events available to Black students attending HCDSB schools.
“In addition to the Black student unions and the Black student associations present in all of our secondary schools, the creation of our board-wide BSU [Black Student Union], the BE.US Black Empowered United Students, has extended the support of the graduation coach program across the system,” Newton-Williams noted. “This group meets monthly, and its highlights include HCDSB’s first Black Excellence Symposium last year, which included students that participate in our Black student unions.”
Newton-Williams also spoke about another HCDSB committee dedicated to Black excellence.
“The Black History 365 Committee is a committee of educators and board staff committed to incorporating Black history, Black identity, Black joy, and excellence into curriculum 365 days of the year,” Newton-Williams said.
Gonsalves said that over 255 students attended this year’s symposium from all 10 of the board’s secondary schools.
She spoke about the workshops set up at the symposium.
“We are very intentional about what kind of workshops we wanted to incorporate,” Gonsalves said. “We use the feedback from our students that participated last year and the students that are part of our board with BSU to formulate which workshops we wanted to include.”
“Our morning workshops included artistic expression, pathways, experiential opportunities, identity-affirming workshops, and mental health and wellness,” Gonsalves continued. “So this year we had 12 workshops as opposed to nine last year.”
“In the afternoon, we had our students participate in some leadership and team-building activities,” Gonsalves added.
Brenda Agnew, trustee for Burlington Wards 4 and 5, attended the event and gave her thoughts on the symposium.
“You could just feel it,” Agnew said. “You could feel the excitement. You could feel the camaraderie. You could feel the inspiration. And that’s such a large part of the work that you’re both doing.”
