Equity Task Force: Staff and student survey starts soon

The Trillium Lakelands District School Board’s equity task force has reported where they are in their mandate to “identify and eliminate systematic barriers that negatively impact the success of individuals from achieving their long-term goals.”

The task force involves trustees David Morrison, Louise Clodd, Judy Saunders, Kaylee Kelly and Ryder Lytle who note that a staff and student survey regarding equity will soon be distributed across the board. Its data will be collated and available for analysis in the fall of 2021 and will determine where the board goes moving forward.

Saunders shared with trustees how meaningful she had found a recent round table meeting where student trustees shared some of the “trauma” that fellow students had dealt with while attending TLDSB schools.

“It was an eye opener for many of us on the committee,” Saunders said. “The student report was a powerful one. I realized how sheltered I have been. I was utterly unaware of some of the trauma students have been going through.”

“We began to talk of where, in an ideal world, folks would like to be three to five years from now,” Saunders added. “It was a really good start to very important work.”

“There were very important discussions going on at that meeting,” Morrison said. “These are equity issues that need to be faced head on. The student trustees’ presentation was very powerful. It is important that as a board we recognize what is going on.”