When Chair Bruce Davis visits Toronto public schools, he sees classrooms where students from many different countries, cultures and religions learn together.
But he doesn’t see that same diversity in the boardroom at Canada’s largest school board.
“When I stand up on the stage at a school event and I look at the kids in the gym, I see the whole United Nations, and that’s not adequately reflected in the board,” he said.
A more diverse group of trustees might take a new approach to issues, he said. “It wouldn’t necessarily change (policies), but the quality of debate would improve if the board was more diverse. We could do a better job representing the diversity of Toronto.”
Davis, who has been an Etobicoke trustee on the Toronto District School Board for 10 years, is not running for re-election.
This fall, a number of visible minority candidates are running to become trustees.
Parthi Kandavel, active in the city’s Tamil community, is running in Ward 18 (Scarborough Southwest) and has some high-profile backers including MP and former Ontario premier Bob Rae.
“I think (Kandavel) represents a community that has a huge stake or interest in the public board,” said Trustee Michael Coteau of Ward 17 (Don Valley East), who is running for re-election and was the first black to become vice-chair of the board.
“I think there’s a different type of Scarborough or Etobicoke that has emerged in the last 10 years; there’s a community shift that’s taken place” and municipal politicians should better reflect that, he added.
Saadik Malik, a Somali-Canadian, is running in Ward 1 (Etobicoke North) but “not simply to improve diversity on the school board,” although he says that’s something people should be concerned about.
“All parents, no matter what their religion or ethnicity, they all want to get the best education possible for their kids,” he said. “If I can help them voice their concerns by speaking to them in Somali, then that can only benefit their children.”
Catherine Fife, who heads the Ontario Public School Boards Association, said some boards, like the one in Thunder Bay, have set aside a seat for a First Nations trustee.
“The good news is that boards are not as homogeneous as they once were, but there’s still a long way to go,” she said. “We’re all in agreement that a diversity of ages and cultures needs to be at the table to best represent the community.”
But it can be difficult to attract candidates, especially when trustee elections tend to attract the least attention.
That’s despite the fact that the Toronto board is a major landowner in the city and controls a $2.6 billion budget, said Trustee Cathy Dandy, who is running for re-election in Ward 15 (Toronto-Danforth).
Shelley Laskin, a former trustee and board chair, is running after a seven-year hiatus in municipal politics. She said while turnout hasn’t been great at all-candidates’ meetings, that’s more a reflection of how busy people’s lives are.
Better attended have been meet-and-greets with parents before already scheduled school curriculum nights, she added.
Source: ParentCentral.ca
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