September 15, 2022 – The Upper Canada District School Board has started the school year with a $5,287,200 investment in technology equipment and furniture, as part of the school board’s goal to engage students, staff and community partners in real-world learning and enhanced pathways.
The investment resulted in 40 elementary school and 28 secondary school classrooms getting new furniture to provide more flexible learning spaces, 1,800 new desktop computers and 730 laptops for student use, new tools and equipment for all secondary school tech shops, 3D printers, a drone pilot program, school network upgrades and office phone system replacements, plus laptop charging carts, new teacher laptops and a loaner device program for replacement/occasional staff.
“As a result of sound financial planning, we were able to make these additional investments at the end of the last school year. We are fortunate to have a Board of Trustees that planned for and fully supported these actions,” says Director of Education Ron Ferguson. “The implementation of these purchases and upgrades are just the beginning. We have innovative and ambitious goals defined in our overall strategic plans for our school board that we are looking forward to achieving. We want to encourage our schools to continue with this thinking and we will work with them at the central level to carry out real-world learning activities and innovative opportunities.”
This information was first shared as part of the Director’s Work Plan Update to the Board of Trustees at the first meeting of the 2022-23 school year, held on September 14, 2022.
More information about this initiative, including a full breakdown of this investment, can be found here. The complete Board Work Plan and Director’s Work Plan, with all priority areas and goals for the 2022-23 school year can be reviewed and downloaded on the UCDSB website.