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Algoma District School Board Home

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  • The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. -Martin Luther King, Jr
  • Character is the real foundation of all worthwhile success. -John Hays Hammond
  • Character is the main object of education. -Mary Wooley
  • Character is a wish for a perfect education. -Julia H. Gulliver
  • The end and aim of all education is the development of character. -Francis Wayland Parker
  • Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. -J.C. Wells
  • The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention. -Kahlil Gibran
  • Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. -John F. Kennedy
  • Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." -Mary Anne Radmacher
  • Most people say that it is intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character. -Albert Einstein
  • Character is easier kept than recovered. -Unknown
  • Character is who you are when nobody's watching. -Unknown
  • Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. -Frank Outlaw
  • Give thanks. Appreciate what you DO have ... the more we give thanks, the more we receive to be thankful for. Gratitude is the gift that always gives back. -Matthew McConaughey
  • True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character. -David O. McKay
  • Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage and determination. -John Luther
  • Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. -Albert Einstein
  • Character is more important than any other leadership trait. -John Wooden
  • The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do. -Steve Jobs
  • It’s the sum of our small, everyday choices, that defines who we are. -Unknown
  • Citizenship is the chance to make a difference to the place where you belong. -Charles Handy
  • Treat others the way you want to be treated. -Unknown
  • Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. -Winston Churchill
  • It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. -J.K. Rowling
  • To make a difference in someone's life you don't have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful or perfect. You just have to care. -Mandy Hale
  • The simple act of caring is heroic. -Edward Albert
  • Kindness is caring for others, even when they may not care for you. -RAKtivist
  • Caring - about people, about things, about life - is an act of maturity. -Tracy McMillan
  • Cooperation is always more powerful than competition. -Bob Proctor
  • Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there. -Virginia Burden
  • Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you've got to give it. -R.G. Risch
  • One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. -Bryant McGill
  • Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living and truth loving. -James E. Faust
  • Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. -Roy T. Bennett
  • The time is always right to do what is right. -Martin Luther King, Jr
  • Integrity gives you real freedom because you have nothing to fear since you have nothing to hide. -Zig Ziglar
  • Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -Martin Luther King, Jr
  • Fairness is not an attitude. It's a professional skill that must be developed and exercised. -Brit Hume
  • The price of greatness is responsibility. -Winston Churchill
  • The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. -Anne Frank
  • Responsibility finds a way. Irresponsibility makes excuses! -Gene Bedley
  • Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -Thomas Edison
  • Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. -Henry Ford
  • Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. -Julie Andrews
  • Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. -Dale Carnegie
  • Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts. -Winston Churchill
  • Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries. -James Michener
  • A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. -John Maxwell
  • The essence of great leadership is influence, not authority. -Kenneth Blanchard
  • Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. -John Maxwell
  • Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. -Barack Obama
  • What you do has a far greater impact than what you say. -Stephen Covey
  • If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. -John Quincy Adams
  • Character is not inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. -Helen Gahagan Douglas
  • You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. -Beverly Sills
  • The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Lao-tzu
  • Sow a thought and you reap an act. Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. -William Makepeace Thackeray
  • You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • When we do good things, our self-respect grows. -Abraham Heschel
  • That you might retain your self-respect, it is better to displease people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong. -William Boetcker
  • If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. -maxim
  • Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself. -Henry Ward Beecher
  • It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. -proverb
  • Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. -Thomas Edison
  • A false friend is worse than an open enemy. -proverb
  • Three persons helping each other can do as much as six working alone. -Spanish proverb
  • Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. -The Golden Rule
  • Never let the fear of striking out get in your way. -Babe Ruth
  • Courage is mastery of fear, not absence of fear. -Mark Twain
  • Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the people you can. -John Wesley
  • Life’s most persistent question is, “What are you doing for others?” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • We cannot live better than by seeking to become better. -Seneca
  • Failure is not falling down, but staying down. -Mary Pickford
  • Most of the things worth doing in the world were declared impossible before they were done. -Thomas Edison
  • If you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all. -old saying
  • The best indicator of our character is: (a) how we treat people who can’t do us any good, and (b) how we treat people who can’t fight back. -Dear Abby
  • We create our character by the daily decisions we make. -Deb Austin Brown
  • Solid character will reflect itself in consistent behavior, while poor character will seek to hide behind deceptive words and actions.Solid character will reflect itself in consistent behavior, while poor character will seek to hide behind deceptive words and actions. -Myles Monroe
  • Integrity never goes out of style. -Jim George
  • The measure of a person’s real character is what they would do if they knew they would never be found out. -Thomas Macaulay
  • Talent will get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. -John Wooden
  • No price is too high to pay for a good reputation. -Anonymous
  • Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. -Charles Reade
  • When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.-William Arthur Ward
  • Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our needs. -George Eliot
  • Follow the three R’s: Respect for self, respect for others and responsibility for all your actions. -Anonymous
  • Character equals destiny. -Heraclitus
  • A sound body is good; a sound mind is better; but a strong and clean character is better than either. -Theodore Roosevelt
  • Character is much easier kept than recovered. -Thomas Paine
  • To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time. -Katherine Hepburn
  • The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do. -John Holt
  • There is no right way to do the wrong thing. -Anonymous
  • In the arena of human life, the honours and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action. -Aristotle
  • If we are strong, our character will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help. -John F. Kennedy
  • Character is a conquest, not a bequest. -Anonymous
  • Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind. -Eric Hoffer
  • Character is made by what you stand for; reputation, by what you fall for. -Robert Quillen
  • Your character is defined by your actions, not merely by your thought. Your actions represent who you are, while your thoughts only represent what you would like to be. -Anonymous
  • One can acquire everything in solitude -- except character. -Stendhal

Current Events

2 student welders

ADSB Students & Staff Benefit from Generous Tenaris & CWBWF Funding

Tenaris President in Canada Ricardo Prosperi and Joe Saundercook, Manager of Fund & Partnership Development with CWBWF, saw their funding dollars in action as they toured an ADSB Grade 12 manufacturing class in Sault Ste Marie on February 27th. They were joined by ADSB Chair Jennifer Sarlo and other special guests, as they observed equipment in use and spoke with staff and students about how the equipment is impacting their teaching and learning.

Focus On Our Priorities

FIT Academy logo

Registration Open for ADSB's New F.I.T. Academy

Algoma District School Board (ADSB) is excited to introduce, new for the 2023/2024 school year, the F.I.T. (Focused. Individualized. Training.) Academy for students interested or experienced in individual sports which include swimming, gymnastics, dancing or cross-country skiing.
sarah's session

Algoma District School Board Pathways Team Excited to Help Grade 8 Students Begin Planning for High School

(Oct 20, 2022) Grade 8 students are enjoying their final year as intermediate students. While they have graduation and school trips to look forward to, they also have high school on the horizon and may have thoughts and questions about their transition to Grade 9. Algoma District School Board (ADSB) has planned an event that will encourage Grade 8 students to begin thinking not only about entering high school, but also about planning for their future.
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Chair Sarlo

Message from the Chair

(November 15, 2022) 
I am honored to continue to serve the Algoma District School Board as its chair for my eleventh year. Thank you, Trustee Reid, for your nomination, and thank you to my fellow trustees for your confidence and continued support. I look forward to working with Vice Chair Elaine Johnston.

Working with our dynamic leadership team, we will seek every opportunity – whether in classrooms, through budget discussions, or at the Board table -- to strive to best meet the diverse needs of every student in our system. 

Just a couple of weeks ago we acknowledged and said farewell to some very experienced and dedicated trustees who served this board for 8-26 years! We know that as we work around this table as colleagues, we often develop strong relationships that will last into the future. With that being said, we welcome our four newly elected trustees to our Board and we look forward to working with you over the next term! Your unique experiences will bring new perspectives to our group and we look forward to learning alongside you as we serve our students and communities. The learning curve can be steep and we want to ensure that you feel informed and engaged from the outset, so our first order of business will be to provide support and professional development. We look forward to maintaining the strong, respectful relationships, for which our board is known, with our Director Lucia Reece and the passionate team of leaders who join us around this table. Change at any level is a driver for growth and opportunity and we look forward to learning and growing together as lead learners in the ADSB.

Early in the new year, we will begin the work on reviewing and renewing our strategic plan, vision, mission, values, and priorities with the new board and we want to bring our best thinking forward to our staff, families, and stakeholders for their feedback and approval.

As we work to support strategies to mitigate learning loss and gaps in our student population due to the pandemic, we look forward to continued stability in the classroom to support student success. We recognize the importance of mental health and well-being supports integrated into the classroom curriculum and activities. An upcoming survey of our students will further inform our work as we develop focused strategies to provide differentiated support for our increasingly diverse student body and their families. Incorporating land-based learning for our Indigenous students and furthering our work in reconciliation will continue to be a priority.

Last year I mentioned our anticipation of getting the shovel in the ground at our new JK-12 school in Blind River and today we continue to work with the Ministry to get this project off the ground. We will advocate for this site and other capital priorities that have been identified within our board. We look forward to the continued transformation of the new Trades School at White Pines as it unfolds over the next year providing a technologically modern space for the trades of today and the future. We are always so proud of our board’s ongoing commitment to maintaining and revitalizing our learning spaces and grounds. 

There is a lot to look forward to as we look ahead to another busy year. We look forward to positive and successful negotiations with our union groups so that we can continue to focus on our priorities of achievement, well-being, and engagement. 

Thank you once again for your support and we look forward to working together to build confident learners and caring citizens who are proud to be ADSB!
 
 
Jennifer Sarlo
Chair - Algoma District School Board
Director Reece

Message from the Director

(February 2023)
 
 
As 99.98% of our students returned to in-person learning this fall, I could only admire the resilience of our students, staff and families. Every school I visited was filled with a joyous “buzz” and smiles were everywhere in classrooms. Clearly, the last two and a half years helped us all develop a deeper appreciation for the learning and socialization
that public education provides and for us in ADSB, it strengthened our commitment to ensure “Confident learners, caring citizens” walk out our doors.

The annual Director’s Report provides a glimpse into the quality and breadth of programs that provide our students with a strong academic foundation, support their development of good character and citizenship, and build their confidence and capacity to apply their knowledge in a fast-changing world. We continue to modernize and upgrade our facilities, allowing us to deliver quality learning experiences in learning spaces that are innovative, engaging and foster creative thinking and problem-solving. We have a pathway for every student and our dedicated staff, supported by stakeholders and community partners, work to help every student discover theirs!

Our commitment -- to support the achievement and well-being of our students -- is unwavering and I am excited to share these snapshots of the learning and successes from across the Algoma District School Board. I am confident that as you review the report, you too, will feel the same sense of pride that I feel and will see why we are so
Proud to be … ADSB!
 
Lucia Reece
Director of Education
 

Mission

Confident learners, caring citizens.

Vision

In partnership with our stakeholders, the Algoma District School Board will create a collaborative learning community where all flourish as confident learners who see themselves as capable, self-directed and open to learning and as caring citizens who value good character and contribute positively to our communities.

Values

We are guided by:
ADSB character traits; lifelong learning;
empathy; ethical relationships;
equity & inclusion; accountability
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