Welcome to my first blog
Thanks for reading this. I’m running for Durham District School Board Trustee and appreciate you dropping by.
Feel free to peruse the website and appreciate any expressions of interest or comments you might have.
It would be great if you wanted to get involved and support my campaign, by say requesting a sign, becoming a volunteer, providing an endorsement, pledging a donation, or simply getting in touch.
My 4 great kids and 2 newborn grand kids as well as my extended family and friends are helping out. As you’ll see from my brief bio I’m a professional who is passionate about governance, risk management and effecting change. I am running with a focus on keeping kids safe, lot’s more to come on that!
You can come back anytime to see what’s new on the site and the blogs.
Kids Safety includes preserving the planet…
As Canada looks to meet its climate commitments to Net Zero, school boards have an important role to play to help schools achieve net zero – and frankly negative emissions is best. Schools will need infrastructure investments and support from all 3 levels of government will be required. The federal government had $51.75 million in funding available which expired March 31, 2022. Did DDSB get any of that funding?
Beyond infrastructure it will require cultural change and support from the school board, educators, parents and yes students in many ways. The time to start is now! So why is DDSB silent on what it is doing or has planned?
The Catholic Board has already started. The DDSB website has no updates since 2019 on this important topic. Why?
There are lots of examples of school boards and schools moving forward. Infrastructure changes include heat pumps, solar panels, etc. Cultural change includes walking vs. driving to school, recycling, reduced waste, etc. Lots more to talk about, stay tuned!
I’ve included a few links if you want to learn more.
When elected this will be an important initiative I will spearhead.
See: https://www.ddsb.ca/en/about-ddsb/green-energy-act.aspx
See: https://ecoschools.ca/school-boards-districts/membership/
Thanks…John
Kids’ safety includes preserving the planet through recycling…
Following the theme in the previous blog let’s reflect on the big and small
changes to how school boards could operate schools to enhance safety, show
environmental leadership and educate future generations on safe sustainable
practices. For example, some schools do have different bins in classrooms
for different types of waste.
School boards have not yet tackled how to move to a near zero waste
footprint. That starts with assessing the reasons why waste is produced
at schools and engage students, educators and parents in the dialogue about
what waste is, where waste comes from, how to reduce or eliminate waste.
In elementary schools, in particular, there are many exciting opportunities
to discover, teach and model responsibilities regarding our planet. We
can show children simple things that they and their family can do.
Here are three ways DDSB could adopt targets of 90%+ reduction in waste this
year:
- Require eco friendly meals
to be provided at any event and during school days. This would mean pack
lunches and snacks in reusable containers and eliminate food and
especially packaging waste at the school. Teachers and parents can
model safe sustainable practices by using reusable water bottles, a zero
waste lunch and snacks, having reusable cutlery and using a reusable mug
for their tea/coffee. For events, require vendors to use creative
methods to serve food without creating packaging waste. - Require educators to use the
tools they have to project lessons on screen and eliminate the vast
majority of the photocopying and creation of booklets that once completed
end up in recycling. Think of the paper, ink, printer costs and time
that could be saved, those savings preserve resources for future youth. - Schools can promote
environmentally friendly ways of getting to and from school such as safely
and responsibly walking, biking, or skateboarding. Driving students
to school should not be a daily event. Contrary to popular belief
walking to and from school is not always uphill!
All of the above are simple low/no cost ideas that
safely educate students. There are many other solutions too. What’s
important is starting now!
Unfortunately, again DDSB seems to be nowhere in
addressing these items, yet the TDSB has embraced this, see: https://www.tdsb.on.ca/environment/Home/Education/EcoSchools
Lots more to talk about, stay tuned!
When elected this will be an important initiative I
will spearhead.
Thanks…John
Kids’ safety includes better management of class sizes and facilities…
With week 1 of school completed, comments about class sizes and facilities are timely.
While the Ministry of Education sets class size limits that vary by level, the effective implementation of those varies by school. During the run up to the first day of school and frankly for most of the school year there’s a juggling act the school administrative staff undertake to forecast demand for teachers as well as students. When it works, everyone is happy; when it does not, the opposite holds true.
To the extent possible class sizes should be equitable across relevant grades. That does not mean equal numbers of students though. All students are individuals and some may require more attention from teachers than others, based on the Individual Education Plan (“IEP”). So school administrative staff should look at each IEP and ensure those needs can be met by the relevant teacher, without undue burden.
Logic would dictate the older students are on upper floor(s) of schools and in a second let’s touch on the use of portables…
Size limits are helpful to improve social interactions, learning and safety of the students and staff.
Regarding actual school facilities, despite the provincial claims of success in retrofits of schools for improved ventilation, there are many schools, including in DDSB, that have only had portable air filter units installed. As we look forward to the future where schools become community hubs for maximum use after school hours, it’s clear the HVAC requires serious upgrades, especially to show leadership in climate change actions. That would in my mind include: solar panels, heat pumps, water recycling, bike storage racks, etc.
Portables seem to be a permanent reality in most schools. I’ve talked to some parents who are frustrated that:
-
- Students can be in portables for many years, and are not consciously rotated into the school proper, while teachers might well get rotated
-
- School boards seem incapable of ensuring schools are constructed when needed, especially in new neighbourhoods, leading to more busing and more portables
-
- Student forecasting models assume less than 1.5 students per household. In many communities this means the schools are too small as families may send 3 or more students to schools, hence the high demand for portables
In summary, the DDSB needs better school population forecasting methods, practices and tools to better match community needs, support the needs of students and educators and keep kids safe.
Lots more to talk about, stay tuned! Let me know of any topics you’d like to hear about.
When elected this will be an important initiative I will spearhead.
Thanks…John
Remember in Ajax you can vote starting on October 17.
…being named in a $3m civil lawsuit for sexual abuse of a student reflects very badly on DDSB – obviously its heartrending and horrific as reported by the CBC. I’ll let you follow along on your own – see links below.
I’m running to keep kids safe which includes good governance and DDSB still does not have transparent incident reporting (let’s call it – where’s the equivalent of Covid reporting), nor effective practices and tools to properly address it…only this school year is there a province wide initiative for educators to complete a 1 time on line training course focused on sexual abuse prevention, even though the province announced earlier this year it would “publicly disclose and make parents and guardians aware of educators that have been involved in sexual abuse and other serious criminal proceedings”. There’s way more to do here.
Sad day and sincere condolences to the victim, family and friends.
For news article by CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sex-assault-lawsuit-allegations-1.6580147
For province Feb 8 release: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1001561/ontario-takes-action-to-protect-students-and-children
September 13, not a great day for DDSB…
…being named in a $3m civil lawsuit for sexual abuse of a student reflects very badly on DDSB – obviously its heartrending and horrific as reported by the CBC. I’ll let you follow along on your own – see links below.
I’m running to keep kids safe which includes good governance and DDSB still does not have transparent incident reporting (let’s call it – where’s the equivalent of Covid reporting), nor effective practices and tools to properly address it…only this school year is there a province wide initiative for educators to complete a 1 time on line training course focused on sexual abuse prevention, even though the province announced earlier this year it would “publicly disclose and make parents and guardians aware of educators that have been involved in sexual abuse and other serious criminal proceedings”. There’s way more to do here.
Sad day and sincere condolences to the victim, family and friends.
For news article by CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sex-assault-lawsuit-allegations-1.6580147
For province Feb 8 release: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1001561/ontario-takes-action-to-protect-students-and-children
And tomorrow @10am voting starts!
So the Town of Ajax provides multiple voting options, everyone should vote, and I’d like to win as a Trustee for DDSB from Ajax.
You can vote by phone or internet and in person on certain days…see: https://election.ajax.ca/en/voting/how-when-to-vote/ . I expect there will be a ‘vote here’ link added tomorrow
I look forward to your support and recently attended an endorsed candidates meeting (audio recorded) hosted by the Durham District Labour Council. Great questions and informed answers by candidates across the region. Will post a link when available,
In addition I’ve submitted my candidacy to get endorsed by the http://www.ontarioclimateemergency.ca so that should get posted tomorrow. Climate change is a critical issue for all of us and future generations of students.
Thanks…John
john@votejohningold.ca
Voting link see
Please vote! Appreciate voting for my candidacy as DDSB Trustee.
Tomorrow is the last day to vote!
Please vote if you have not already.
Voting link see
Please vote! Appreciate voting for my candidacy as DDSB Trustee.
Results available after 8pm today (when polls close), at:
https://election.ajax.ca/en/results/
The people of Ajax have voted and the results are in!
Congratulations to those elected Donna and Kelly.
For those not elected, let’s keep the activism going and ensure those elected perform to expectations, execute their platform promises.
For the Trustees work especially hard with strikes looming to keep kids safe, address climate change, improve, trust, accountability and transparency with good governance and risk management. It’s time to #reimagine education. There are ways to make education more effective and free up tax dollars for investment and innovation. A few examples to get started:
- Reinvent education with current curricula focused on future skills needed
- Consolidate the back office functions
- Standardize technology including hardening cyber security
- Consolidate the 14 school authorities
- Consolidate the 31 english public district school boards, but why stop there? Consolidate the 4 french public, as well as the 37 catholic school boards. Then we have 1 school board for the province, why not?
- Replan schools as community hubs with investments for climate change
- Replan growth forecasts and eliminate use of portable classrooms
- Sell underutilized schools or convert to community housing
- Sell all school board administrative buildings or convert to community housing
- Eliminate all non student facing education staff making more than $110,000 on the Sunshine list including those who have offices in the school board administrative buildings that would eliminate 175 roles and save over $21 million just in the DDSB alone…
- …and work with the unions, community leaders, all levels of government…
Anyway, sad to say I was unable to win as DDSB Trustee.
Happy to help reach out as needed.
And I can’t end this without thanking all the supporters I had and votes for change I received. I would like to thank both Richard and Guy for extensive support – best team I could ever ask for. Finally, thanks to Karen, as a committed DDSB elementary teacher you have been a big fan and supporter and inspiration.
One more thing, my best wishes to Paul Skippen [https://votepaulskippen.ca/] who was unsuccessful in his own Trustee election in Peel Region.
Together we and others will address why “the future is broken”, and how let’s “#reimagine” education…stay tuned!
Thanks…John
John Ingold DDSB Trustee 