CCSTA Executive Director Julian Hanlon sat in the interviewee chair last month when he chatted with American education superintendent and podcaster, Timothy Uhl.

Calling it Catholic School Matters, Uhl recently launched a podcast to help Catholic educators learn and gain insight from leaders from across the country and the world.

Uhl aired his interview with Hanlon in February and they chatted about the Canadian Catholic education system.

With American Catholic schools receiving no public funding, Uhl was interested to learn about how Catholic schools operate across Canada.

Hanlon provides a general overview of how Catholic schools run in each province and territory. They then delved into how school boards connect with the Catholic Church and the provincial government particularly when developing policy for the Catholic schools. They also hit on maintaining Catholic identity, French Immersion programming and the Toonies for Tuition program.

Hanlon’s 36-year-long experience working in the Catholic education system made him well versed to answer the questions and provides Uhl’s listeners with insight on the Catholic education framework across the provinces and territories.

Take a listen to the interview on Timothy Uhl’s Podcast.

This year, Catholic Education Week runs the first week of May, and schools within the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools in Alberta ironed out plans last year that honoured and celebrated the Catholic education spirit.

 CCSTA wants to highlight all the good things these schools did last year to inspire us to honour this year’s celebrations. It’s also a time to prepare for World Catholic Education Day, which happens on May 25, 2017.

 Every year, 40 days after Easter on Ascension Thursday, Catholics across the globe give thanks for the gift that is Catholic education through the celebration of World Catholic Education Day.

 The Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools put together an impressive week-long schedule that involved nature, prayer, kindness, and more.

 To get us inspired for the week, here’s just a sample of their schools’ activities from 2016:

Read more: How Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools Celebrated Catholic Education Week

Alberta’s Adriana LaGrange has been elected as the CCSTA Vice President and it couldn’t be a more fitting role.

Following the passing of Vice President Tony Sykora in January, the CCSTA felt the void of Tony’s passion for education. Sykora, who hailed from Alberta, played a big role in Alberta’s Catholic education platform – as does LaGrange.

“It’s such a meaningful fit to have Adriana accept the Vice President role to fill Tony’s spot,” says CCSTA Executive Director Julian Hanlon.

Adriana LaGrange was first elected to the Board of Trustees of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools in 2007 and has spent three of those years as Board Chair and Vice Chair for another two. She has long been involved in Catholic education and her community taking on numerous volunteer and committee opportunities. Adriana currently lives in rural Red Deer with her husband of 32+ years, is a mother of seven children and a grandmother of three. She holds an honours diploma in Rehabilitation and Disability Studies and also owns and operates a family farm in addition to managing the trucking of a large hog partnership.

Adriana was elected to be the President of the Alberta Catholic Trustees' Association (ACSTA) in November 2015 and re-elected to the president's position in November 2016. This put her in to serve as the Alberta representative for the CCSTA Board of Directors.

Read more: CCSTA Welcomes Adriana LaGrange as Vice President