Dan Penna
Wards 4 & 7
Website: danpenna.ca
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 403-993-1073
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Biography Dan wants to kindle the flame of love for Christ in the hearts of children, parents and CCSD staff.
Married with four adult children and two grand-children, he is a Parish Council member at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Orthodox Catholic Parish), a lector at Ascension Parish, a Knight of Columbus and a Catholic men's fellowship group TMIY! team leader. Dan's Catholic faith shapes his outlook and he strives to live a life of obedience to Christ. Dan is a veteran, versatile, and creative educator with over 25 years of experience teaching K through Grade 12. As a Special Education Specialist, he has taught children with unique learning needs including those with cognitive disabilities, Young Offenders in detention, and other at-risk youth. Dan has taught Physical Education for six years and coached 48 community and school sports teams including hockey, baseball, volleyball and soccer. Prior to teaching, Dan worked for a provincial cabinet minister, co-founded a non-profit organization, served on a food co-op board and the Toronto Race Relations and Policing Committee, and co-edited the U of C student newspaper. |
Platform Instilling the love of Jesus and His Church in the hearts of our students is paramount. Here’s how to do it.
First, let’s re-evangelize the schools with authentic faith formation, hiring specialized teachers of the Catholic faith and creating model study units to embed Catholic values in every subject area. I want our faith to play a greater role in students' daily lives. Second, let’s respect parental rights as first educators by sticking to the Catechism and eradicating DEI and other ideological ideas. In Christ there is no black or white, no male or female, no Jew or gentile and no master or slave. Third, we need effective leadership that is vocal, transparent, accountable—and Catholic! When we seek first the kingdom of God, we are promised that all other things will be granted to us—including improved excellence in our schools. Catholic education exists to form the character of students in the image of Christ. A school system increasingly Catholic in name alone is a mockery and a scandal. I know firsthand that the CCSD's promise to “support the development, permeation and modelling of our faith,” is hollow because I was fired as a substitute teacher in 2021 and told NOT to evangelize students. Let’s end the hypocrisy. I ask for the support of all sincere members of the Roman Catholic Church, as the mystical body of Christ present on earth, to stand with me to renew authentic Catholic education in CCSD schools. |
7 Questions
1. What are your priority areas?
My intention is to restore authentic Catholic education in the schools by hiring devout and knowledgeable teachers to act as specialty teachers of the Catholic faith. Jesus wants us to let the little children come to him.
As part of inspiring the love of Jesus and His Church in the hearts of students as our first priority, we can create model units of study for all subject areas that embed Catholic values, history and culture throughout the curriculum.
A key priority is to respect parental rights by sticking to the Catechism. Parents are the first educators of their children, not teachers. We need more God and less ideology and political activism in our schools. I oppose non-Catholic ideologies in our Catholic schools, such as DEI, Critical Race Theory, Anti-Colonialism, Gender Theory, etc. The Catechism is sufficient. In Christ there is no black or white, male or female, Jew or gentile, master or slave.
Changing the culture of leadership is a priority. We don't need more in camera trustee meetings. We need effective leadership that is vocal, transparent, accountable—and Catholic! When we seek first the kingdom of God, we are promised that all other things will be granted to us—including improved excellence in our schools.
As part of inspiring the love of Jesus and His Church in the hearts of students as our first priority, we can create model units of study for all subject areas that embed Catholic values, history and culture throughout the curriculum.
A key priority is to respect parental rights by sticking to the Catechism. Parents are the first educators of their children, not teachers. We need more God and less ideology and political activism in our schools. I oppose non-Catholic ideologies in our Catholic schools, such as DEI, Critical Race Theory, Anti-Colonialism, Gender Theory, etc. The Catechism is sufficient. In Christ there is no black or white, male or female, Jew or gentile, master or slave.
Changing the culture of leadership is a priority. We don't need more in camera trustee meetings. We need effective leadership that is vocal, transparent, accountable—and Catholic! When we seek first the kingdom of God, we are promised that all other things will be granted to us—including improved excellence in our schools.
2. What are your views on Funding for Public education?
Funding for Catholic education is entrenched in Alberta's constitution, but we need to continue to defend it. We defend it best by strengthening the faith but also by educating the general public about our right to Catholic education and about the virtues of our faith.
3. How Can learning conditions be improved?
Setting clear priorities is an essential first step. The priority is teaching Faith in Christ and His Church. Graduating students who are moralistic therapeutic deists is not the goal, so we need devout and knowledgeable specialized teachers of the Catholic faith because most CCSD teachers do not practice or understand the Catholic Faith well enough to catechize the students effectively.
Teachers are also burdened by teaching other subject areas in which they lack expertise, such as non-French speakers teaching French, non-scientists teaching Science and non-athletes teaching Physical Education. Piloting innovative approaches, clarifying for all stakeholders the key curriculum standards to prioritize, and improving teacher capacity via PD that is not a waste of time and money all can help.
One of my specific proposals is to end six-day schedules. They are confusing to students, parents and staff alike. The rest of the world, including daycare facilities, follows a weekly schedule. Let Mondays be Mondays.
Teachers are also burdened by teaching other subject areas in which they lack expertise, such as non-French speakers teaching French, non-scientists teaching Science and non-athletes teaching Physical Education. Piloting innovative approaches, clarifying for all stakeholders the key curriculum standards to prioritize, and improving teacher capacity via PD that is not a waste of time and money all can help.
One of my specific proposals is to end six-day schedules. They are confusing to students, parents and staff alike. The rest of the world, including daycare facilities, follows a weekly schedule. Let Mondays be Mondays.
4. How can trustees and school boards best support teachers?
Teachers are key stakeholders in education. They need to be consulted about major decisions that are being considered rather than being told after the fact, which happens all too often in small ways and in large ways.
Teachers need clarity about their job expectations and they need these expectations to be realistic. New teachers should not be expected to do the most difficult or unpopular jobs in the schools and in the district. Administrators need to support teachers in matters of discipline even and especially in the face of parental or student resistance. Being student-centered does not mean relinquishing adult authority. It means using authority with full consideration for the actual needs of children.
Trustees need to act more boldly to ensure that funding is spent well, for example, by promoting effective use of on-line tracking to share resources between and within schools.
Model units of study are an example of this which will also make teachers jobs more easy.
Cost savings can be found. Trustees need to mobilize public understanding and support to enable an effective campaign to increase funding from the government and from parents.
Teachers need clarity about their job expectations and they need these expectations to be realistic. New teachers should not be expected to do the most difficult or unpopular jobs in the schools and in the district. Administrators need to support teachers in matters of discipline even and especially in the face of parental or student resistance. Being student-centered does not mean relinquishing adult authority. It means using authority with full consideration for the actual needs of children.
Trustees need to act more boldly to ensure that funding is spent well, for example, by promoting effective use of on-line tracking to share resources between and within schools.
Model units of study are an example of this which will also make teachers jobs more easy.
Cost savings can be found. Trustees need to mobilize public understanding and support to enable an effective campaign to increase funding from the government and from parents.
5. What are your views on the recently released curriculum?
As a long-time teacher, my view is that continuing to increase the size of the curriculum is unrealistic and burdensome. More is not always better, and this curriculum continues that trend.
I support the intention of moving towards a more knowledge-based set of expectations. Such expectations are more clear and measurable and hence easier to teach toward and easier to attain than process-driven goals. Knowledge-based expectations provide students with the general background needed to contextualize new information and with which to make decisions.
I support the intention of moving towards a more knowledge-based set of expectations. Such expectations are more clear and measurable and hence easier to teach toward and easier to attain than process-driven goals. Knowledge-based expectations provide students with the general background needed to contextualize new information and with which to make decisions.
6. How do we best encourage and facilitate the calls to action as outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?
Rather than learn about First Nations cultures, we need to ensure that students learn with First Nations people. If cultural exchanges with Quebec are possible, our students during the course of 12 years of schooling can be expected to attend at least one powwow with First Nations people in Alberta because they are our neighbours and often our fellow Catholics! We need to actively invite co-operation, for example, exhibition sporting events, student-led sharing of indigenous traditional games, math Olympics, reciprocal theatrical performances, twinning classrooms with First Nations schools, going on shared field trips--much more can be done.
Model units of study are important as well. Establishing a canon of First Nations literature, art, music, videos and movies appropriate for different grades and for staff is vital. Teachers can not be expected to develop expertise independently--they need effective support.
Model units of study are important as well. Establishing a canon of First Nations literature, art, music, videos and movies appropriate for different grades and for staff is vital. Teachers can not be expected to develop expertise independently--they need effective support.
7. What are your priorities in creating a welcoming and inclusive district for all?
Jesus told us that he came to save us from our sins, not to judge us, but He went on to explain in the same passage of scripture that, if we reject Him, we are judged already. John 3:16-18 Jesus explained that many will be called, but few will be chosen. He said that there is a wide path to hell, but that the gate to heaven is narrow. In other words, while hell is the most inclusive place imaginable, heaven is exclusively for the followers of Christ and members of His Church. My priority as a trustee will be to love our students enough to teach them the Truth that Jesus taught us, the Truth that will give our students the best chance to be included in that number when the saints go marching in to heaven.