Catholic Board’s Roger Lawler To Head Ontario’s Council of Education Directors

Kitchener – Roger Lawler, Director of Education for Waterloo Region’s Catholic Schools, on April 16, 2008 re-elected president of the English Catholic Council of Directors of Education (ECCODE) – the provincial association representing the 29 English Catholic Directors of Education in Ontario.

By virtue of this post, Lawler will in September, 2008 also become Chair of the 72-board Council of Directors of Education (CODE). Catholic and public Directors of Education share the CODE leadership on a rotational basis.

The Catholic ECCODE works with the Ministry of Education, Ontario’s Catholic Bishops, the Ontario Catholic Supervisory Officers’ Association (OCSOA) and the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association (OCSTA) to advance the interests of Catholic Education in Ontario.

The non-denominational CODE is the common public voice of senior school district administrators (Catholic, Public and French boards) working with government and various associations. CODE meets monthly with the Deputy Minister of Education to discuss and resolve province-wide education issues.

Lawler, who is the Waterloo Catholic District School Board’s longest-serving Education Director and among the most senior Education Directors in Ontario – Catholic or public -- is also a Past President of OCSOA.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board, representing more than 100,000 Catholic school supporters, operates 52 schools and five adult education facilities serving more than 30,000 elementary, secondary and continuing education students in Waterloo Region – continuing a tradition of quality, inclusive, faith-based education first begun in 1836.