Municipal elections 2022-Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) zone 6 trustee candidates

The Manor Park Chronicle contacted, or attempted to contact, all candidates in the Rideau-Rockcliffe and Rideau-Vanier wards, as well as the local zones for three school boards. (The incumbent trustee for zone 11 of the French Catholic school board, Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est, has been acclaimed.) Out of a total of 23 candidates, 16 responded. Below are profiles for candidates running for trustee in zone 6 of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

Anthony Hope

Anthony is a community leader driven by a desire to ensure all Ottawa youth who are part of the OCDSB are empowered to achieve their highest potential. He is an ardent proponent of developing young leaders of character who are equipped to face the challenges of the world beyond their years in public education.

Anthony is running to become your elected zone 6 OCDSB trustee to ensure the quality of our public education is preserved and to be an advocate for students, parents and school district staff.

Anthony has been involved in numerous community initiatives. While a student, he sought and was subsequently awarded a grant to develop a breakfast program. This “breakfast club” – open to all students – was an opportunity to create a community of learners who could access a meal free of charge before class, ensuring that no student in a district with a large proportion of economically disadvantaged families came to school hungry.

He was also proud to work with the school board to develop and implement a comprehensive anti-homophobia policy that established a tacit recognition that all were welcome at Surrey schools.
In university, Anthony was on the board of a student project committee to assess and award grant funding to students to work on their community projects. He was editor-in-chief of Engineers without Borders’ annual “Failure Report” and sat on the editorial board of the Ontario Council for International Cooperation’s magazine, iAM: Ideas, Actions, Movements. In recognition of his work, Anthony was awarded a 2015 Loran scholarship, and was named a top 25 under 25 youth from the Surrey Board of Trade.

Since leaving university, Anthony has called Ottawa home and has continued engaging with young people as a Kids Help Phone crisis responder.
In this election, Anthony is seeking to return to back-to-basics learning to help students who have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic. He would strike a task force to understand how learners have fallen behind, and work towards building on student achievement.

He would immediately implement the Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read inquiry recommendations to the Ministry of Education to support reading among learners with special needs and he would develop an action plan to reduce class size caps.

He would also seek to establish a grant to help launch student-initiated projects to develop sport, artistic or civic-minded talent.

Anthony is running because he believes in Ottawa’s young potential. To learn more, visit anthonyhope.com.

Lyra Evans

As a current OCDSB Trustee I have experience working within the school system to help parents who are having trouble accessing services for their children, and advocating with principals and staff to help families.

I have an excellent understanding of the procedures and processes of the school board, and the powers of its trustees. I have proven successful in working collaboratively with other trustees to pass several of my motions, such as free menstrual products in all washrooms.

Further, I was on committees for:

• Budget,

• Special Education,

• Active Transportation,

• Environmental Education, and

• the Chair of the Audit Committee, giving me an expertise in these respective areas.

My background as a formerly homeless teenager, the only trans school board trustee in Canada, an environmental chemist, and a community activist and advocate of more than 10 years, allows me to see multiple viewpoints, and to take a well reasoned position on everything that comes before the board of trustees.

Top Priorities
My top long-term issue facing the district is the discrepancy between the English (Core French) and Early French Immersion programs. The English program struggles with lower class scores, lower rates of student well-being, increased rates of split classes, lower rates of grade 10 credit accumulation by 16, and lower rates of university enrollment.

My proposal to address this involves re-envisioning the English program entirely.

My proposal involves phasing in 50 percent English/50 percent French until Grade 3, instead of requiring parents to make the decision between French Immersion or English in Grade 1.

This would keep more students in their home schools and is a natural extension of the popular 50/50 Kindergarten all students currently participate in.

My second issue is inequity between schools. In Rideau-Vanier/Rideau-Rockcliffe in particular, there are systemic inequities between schools in wealthy neighbourhoods and in schools in low-income areas, from fundraising, to parent engagement such as reading with their kids.

The solution to this is to target additional resources to schools in low-income areas, to ensure that extra supports exist for a more equitable system. This would be covered by expanding the SATE (Student Achievement Through Equity) program, and increasing funding granted under the RAISE index (Resource Allocation Index based on Socioeconomics), two school board programs I have vocally supported.

My third issue is, broadly, the environment: ensuring schools have a comprehensive recycling and composting program, and that new purchases and retrofits are completed with environmental concerns front-of-mind.

Contact info:
343-998-3730
LyraEvans.ca
LyraEvansOtt@gmail.com
Facebook.ca/LyraEvansOtt
Twitter, Instagram: @LyraEvansOtt

Keith de Silvia-Legault

My name is Keith de Silvia-Legault, and I’m running to be your OCDSB school trustee. I may have already come to your door to meet you or dropped off one of my flyers. If I have not yet had the pleasure, expect to hear from me in the coming weeks. I am excited to take this opportunity to answer some common questions I have gotten when meeting some of you at the door.

“Why are you running?”

When I was a student, I was inspired to be a teacher as I put confidence in education being essential as it shapes the next generation to succeed. However, as I grew as a student, I began to dislike the current state of schools, as it’s a system that allows children to fall between the cracks very easily. Students experiencing mental illness often fall behind, and don’t get the support they deserve, and the cycle continues.

“What are your priorities?

Here are my big three:

1. Ensuring school equity in the OCDSB and ensuring that each neighbourhood has enough schools to prevent over-capacity, as seen in the current state of Manor Park Public School.
2. Improving mental health services in schools by providing staff with proper mental health training and providing students of all ages with asynchronous learning options in the case of mental health crises to prevent students with mental illness from falling behind.
3. Ensuring students are stakeholders in their education: when students have a say in what they are learning, they have a personal investment that inspires more enjoyment, and, as such, will retain more of what they learn.
   “Aren’t you a little young to be a School Trustee?”
   I’m 22. Now, this is below the average age of a trustee in Ontario (between 40 to 70). However, I am a firm believer that having some younger people on the board brings a new perspective to the table. For example, I have first-hand experience on what it’s like to be a student in the digital age. I also think it’s important for any elected body of representatives to be diverse, especially in age.
   Thank you to the Manor Park Chronicle for providing me the opportunity to write you all! Anyone who wishes to learn more about my campaign, feel free to email me at keithfortrustee@gmail.com or check out my website keithdesilvialegault.com.

Shannon Boschy

Shannon is fighting for education over ideological indoctrination which includes:

• Proven teaching methods for mastering reading, spelling, numeracy over fad techniques.

• Equality and merit-based opportunity and rewards for all students.

• Protecting parental rights and relationships with their children as primary cultural and moral guides.

• Open, transparent, public discussions about trans ideology in schools

• Shannon was a high school math and science teacher in a former career.

He has spent 20 years as a trusted advisor, with fiduciary obligations. The central conversation in his professional practice is the psychology of decision-making, understanding risk and avoiding cognitive bias. He helps people make the best possible choices during some of the most consequential moments in their lives.

He has led business organizations, coached, and organized children’s sports, as well as sat on community and non-profit boards.

As a lifelong learner, he is passionate about education and ensuring children meet the world with the best possible tools to be able to thrive in the most rapidly evolving moment in human history.

Shannon Boschy for Zone 6 OCDSB Trustee October 24.

Editor’s note: The other candidates running in OCDSB Zone 6 are Jennifer Moroziuk and Ryan Ward.