Working in animal services has given Donald Smith a perspective on addressing issues in the community.
The former Ontario SPCA worker and current Toronto animal services bylaw officer said it is a profession that has helped him learn to “deal with hard issues that come up in a community” with a variety of backgrounds.
It has provided him with the knowledge he said he wants to apply in the educational world.
“When I think about student success, I just look at whether or not we’re doing the best possible job for our students, and I think I can provide some more boots-on-the-ground-type information to make those changes for that success to happen.”
Smith has joined a four-candidate race for York Region District School Board trustee. He will be facing Pamela McCarthy, Jessica Neto and Shameela Shakeel.
The candidate has had two children go through the school system, one for the Toronto District School Board and one through YRDSB. He said he hopes to take the best ideas from both boards.
“So I can provide the most clear information possible when it comes to getting involved in committees, getting involved in making decisions that will best represent the students as opposed to just all the parents,” he said.
He said that he wants to address issues he has seen through the experiences of his kids, such as bullying. More consistency in grading schemes is also something he said needs to change.
“The heads of each department should have a standard grading procedure to ensure the success of everybody,” he said. “The other thing I find disquieting is the lack of deadlines or hard deadlines … It just seems we’re not preparing our students properly for university, for jobs, if we’re not enforcing our deadlines and enforcing time management of our students.”
The candidate has also put his support behind a petition circulated by students opposing the Toronto District School Board’s starting a lottery versus an application system for specialized programs, something York students are expressing concern could come to their board as well.
“You need to be able to know to apply yourself,” he said. “I don’t think someone depending on a ping pong ball to go their way is possibly the best solution. … There could be somebody with great ability waiting to get into that program.”
Student success is vital to him, he said, and he wants to see scores improved across the board.
“I don’t feel there should be one school that their test scores are going down so low whereas another school’s test scores are going up so high,” he said. “My goal would be to try to make it so the success rate of students coming out of York Region District School Board area are on par, if not better than other school boards.”
