Richmond Hill’s Dominic Mazzotta is York Catholic school board's new chair

Dominic Mazzotta takes over, Maria Marchese elected vice-chair

Yorkregion.com
December 11, 2018
Dina Al-Shibeeb

With eight years experience as a trustee under his belt, Richmond Hill’s Dominic Mazzotta was elected Dec. 4 as the new chair of the York Catholic District School Board.

Outgoing chair Elizabeth Crowe, trustee for Aurora, King and Whitchurch-Stouffville, nominated Mazzotta. She praised his extensive experience as both a former teacher and principal.

 In his address, Mazzotta began by quoting Renaissance artist Michelangelo, who said: “In every block of marble I see a statue already finished. I must only remove the excess stone and reveal to others what my mind already knows and believes it to be.”

“I strongly believe that with the tools of collaboration, best practices, transparency, accountability and parent consultation, the York Catholic District School Board will no doubt expose a more beautiful statue that will be the envy of all school systems in Ontario,” he added.

Meanwhile, Maria Marchese, a Vaughan trustee, was elected vice-chair of the board, following a nomination by Carol Cotton.

Cotton, a  Markham trustee covering Thornhill and  Unionville, praised Marchese for the expertise she brought to the board in the areas of human resources, policy development and finance.

Marchese said that “as Catholic school board trustees, I believe we all come to this role because of our proud belief in and support for publicly-funded Catholic education, with Jesus as our role model and where faith is central to all that we say and do.”

She continued: “I am very optimistic about the future of the YCDSB as we enter into its 50th anniversary ... I look forward to working with this new board of trustees to increase student academic success, improve student well-being and ensure that all students of the YCDSB have every opportunity to reach their full potential.”

The York Catholic District School Board is made up of 10 elected trustees, and two non-voting student trustees. Individual trustees may inform the board of concerns or issues related to their constituents and community, and they are an integral part of setting the direction and culture of the school system.

The newly-elected chair and vice-chair will serve a one-year term.