Principal William Mack announced his retirement from North Toronto today. Mr. Mack has been at North Toronto for the past eight years, four and a half years as Principal and three and half years as Vice Principal. He also served as Vice Principal at Northern SS and Oakwood CI. Before becoming an administrator, he was a French teacher at Bloor CI, Danforth Tech and CI, Eastdale CI, and Winona PS.

We welcome Dr. Jane Lee, from AY Jackson SS, as our new principal.

For years, I have been on a mission—to wrestle a dragon to his knees—if not to defeat him entirely.

My dragon resides in the N.T. archives, in two shoe boxes and one rather large carton of posed and casual pictures, taken by former members of the Pentagon staff from the 1960s to the 1990s. How little did those students know or care that they were leaving me such a task, when they blithely left behind unidentified, random photos and went on to graduate from N.T.

North Toronto’s teachers have never been less than dedicated. But for the last nine months, that dedication has meant so much more. Teachers have not only had to adapt to the new normal brought on by Covid-19, they’ve also had to adapt to uncertain schedules, virtual learning, and ever-changing software. Mark Kinoshita (’82)—NT grad, physics teacher, and member of the Foundation Advisory Board—shares his perspective on teaching at NT in the time of Covid-19. 

Adapting to adapting

It was a long March Break.

When the Ontario government initially closed schools for two extra weeks in March, it made sense to quarantine students and teachers for 14 days after returning from vacation. We never expected that break to extend to September.