Advisories & News
Press Release
Philcongen Toronto Meets 2 Filipino Canadian Student Trustees of the Largest Catholic District School Board in Canada
2021-12-23
PR-2021-78
Toronto, 23 December 2021 – Philippine Consul General Orontes V. Castro met today with Filipino Canadians Keith Baybayon and Stephanie De Castro, Student Trustees of the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), the largest Catholic District School Board in Canada with 92,000 students and about one third (1/3) of which is of Filipino descent. The 2 Student Trustees were accompanied during the meeting by Filipino Canadian TCDSB Trustee Gary Tanuan (Ward 8, Scarborough).
The Catholic taxpayers in Metropolitan Toronto elect 12 English Language Trustees to the Toronto Catholic District School Board during each municipal election. At present, there are 2 student trustees of the TCDSB who represent the interests of all students. According to Trustee Tanuan, it is the first time in the history of the TCDSB that two of its two students currently serving on the Board of Trustees (Keith Baybayon elected for 2020-2022 and Stephanie De Castro elected for 2021-2023), are of Filipino descent. While no binding vote in the Board and Committee meetings but allowed to suggest a motion, the 2 TCDSB Student Trustees are elected by the students and participate in all Board and Committee meetings.
During the meeting today at Post, Consul General Castro once again thanked the TCDSB as well as the students and their parents for their participation in this year’s successful Sentro Rizal-Toronto’s “Padayon Art Competition” sponsored by Toronto PCG and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), with the full support from the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) and the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board (DPCSB). He recalled that even at the height of the third wave of the pandemic late last year and early this year, the parents and teachers in schools under the TCDSB and the DPCDSB assisted their students in submitting 182 artworks – 111 artworks from elementary and secondary students of TCDSB and 71 artworks from the students of DPCDSB-run schools. There were 105 schools which participated in the art competition – 71 elementary and secondary schools from TCDSB and 34 from the DPCDSB-run schools.
Consul General Castro and Student Trustees Baybayon and De Castro and Trustee Tanuan discussed possible collaborations by Post with TCDSB in expanding the propagation of the Philippine national language among the young generation of Filipino Canadians in TCDSB-run schools; Philippine cuisine; and the “Winter Escapade” which promotes tourism and investment in the Philippines in addition to the yearly collaboration between Post and TCDSB on the celebration every June of the “Filipino Heritage Month.” He thanked the Trustees for their visit to the Philippine Consulate General’s Office at Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto.END-