The chair of Hamilton’s Catholic school board is hoping its first-ever student demographic survey will give a clear picture on how resources and programs need to be allocated to serve the entity’s population.
Pat Daly from the the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB) told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton the examination will cover socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, language, religion, disability and gender among other of factors that affect academic achievement and well-being.
He says hiring practices would be a prime example of a component that likely will be influenced by results of the survey, particularly in relation to extra curricular programing.
“Once we have the results … we can really shape our hiring practices, which has been a priority for us,” according to Daly.
Overall, the board is seeking to identify and eliminate barriers connected with overall student success, or lack of it, with a given learning facility’s curriculum.
“That’s really what we want to find out … whether it’s with regard to Indigenous education or … racialized students,” Daly said.
“So the first step in this is, clearly, to listen … (to) see the reality of our students and staff and then to act upon that.”
The survey is one of several both Hamilton’s public school boards have launched in recent years including a provincially mandated student census in 2021 and an examination on bullying.
The HWCDSB survey launched Wednesday and is open to respondents until Nov. 25.
Daly hopes findings will be publicly released in the spring, but could not commit to the deadline.