Please tell our readers a little about yourself and what motivated you to seek election as a School Board Trustee.
I am a born-and-raised Hamiltonian, of which I have been able to say proudly for 30+ years. While growing up in Hamilton, my family moved around a handful of times, meaning I have experienced more of our schools first hand than the average student and have lived in a few of the different wards across the city (but have lived in Ward 7 "off-and-on" since 2017). Post-graduation, I briefly left Hamilton for 4 years in order to pursue my post-secondary education at the University of Guelph, where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Toxicology. Since then, I moved back home to Hamilton, found a job in my field, pursued further education (gaining a Master's Degree in Food Safety as pictured here), and started focusing more of my efforts to re-establish myself in my community.
What motivated me to seek election as a School Board Trustee was, and always has been, the underlying motivation to do more for my community. Schools and education are the primary foundations of communities, as they connect families and support the growth of students who will one day be the adults that are the pillars in their own community. This is an opportunity for me to help affect positive and meaningful impacts in my community, by supporting students and advocating on behalf of parents.
In your view, what are the three most important issues currently facing students, parents, educators, and the school board, and how would you help address them?
The three biggest issues I see are strained funding, an increasingly challenging classroom environment, and uncertainty of the future. The underlying theme of all three of these issues is, in one way or another, a lack of support. I appreciate the difficult position that students, parents, educators, trustees, and everyone in between have been put in when it comes to these issues. Budgetary difficulties have been a years-long issue that leads to staffing reductions and continually reduced student supports, and I think it is important to be honest in saying that there is no easy or quick solution to this issue. The funding deficits year after year underpin all other issues; it could be argued that the most important issue. Regardless, I would absolutely do everything within scope of my abilities to find efficiencies in the allocation of resources to ensure better student support and student success as the first priority. It is a challenging hurdle to say the least, but we need explore our options to see if there is any way to overcome it via governance.
The challenges in today's classrooms are the most present and visible issue. Educators are stretched thin and experiencing burn out, students are requiring increasingly complex supports (while supports simultaneously being removed due to, again, funding issues), and parents are needing to work twice as hard to support their families. We are continuing to see the impacts of the pandemic on student development, chronic funding issues, and quite frankly, an affordability crisis in general. While this issue is broad and complex, this also means that there is more room for creative solutions to try to improve in these areas. I believe that this is an issue we need to navigate together, and thus I think accessibility of trustees, and strong communication and transparency with parents and the community is a good step in building towards improvement.
Uncertainty of the future is the (admitttedly ambiguous) third issue. There is ongoing uncertainty for the future of the board and the role of trustees as the province continues to introduce legislation (like Bill 101) intending to reduce the role (while also considering elimination of the role entirely. For educators, the same uncertainty from Provincial decision-making and mandates which frequently shift the curriculum and learning expectation for students, while again, underfunding leads to less EAs and increasing class sizes. For parents and students, the same uncertainty of an ever-shifting curriculum and lack of supports. One of the greatest uncertainties is the current infiltration of AI into the classroom, which is impacting learning and skill development. The way to address uncertainty is through careful and thoughtful leadership. Since trustees are responsible for governance, I would advocate for the best interests and well-being of our students by supporting policies which look to safeguard from the harms and risks of AI in the learning environment.
A trustee's role is one of governance rather than day-to-day management. How do you see the relationship between trustees, board administration, and school principals?
Trustees set the direction through policies, the board administration turn the vision for policies into actionable procedures, and principals execute the procedures through the day-to-day management of each school. The three roles are meant to complement each other, as each plays a vital role. However, this does not mean that the trustee's role is strictly oversight, policies, and budgets. Trustees are elected to represent the voices of their community; trustees are the point of engagement for the public. This means listening to the concerns of parents and helping facilitate the solutions they need. This may not be a role of day-to-day management within the physical school, but it is a day-to-day role listening to, advocating for, and supporting familiaes, parents, students, educators, and the community as a whole.
What changes or improvements, if any, would you like to see in the delivery of education within our local school system over the next four years?
Acknowledging that trustees cannot control provincial funding, my main focus would be educational experiences that are more "back to basics". Education is not solely math, science, and academic pursuits. It is the opportunity for the development of social skills. It is the opportunity for developing practical life skills. And while I would love more emphasis on learning about gardening, cooking, finances, civics, trustees cannot explicitly change curriculum. However, policies which look to limit screen time, educate caution with technology, and encourage more coomunity-driven and/or outdoor learning are changes I would like to see. Technology does need to be integrated into education to some extent, as it is a critical part of our society. However, safeguards and limits are needed, especially with regard to AI. I do not consider AI to be the "inevitably" it is advertised to be, but even if it is: it has no place in the majority of classrooms aside from computer sciences or tech-related disciplines. Students need to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, and AI impedes that when the work required for learning is simply offloaded.
Why should voters place their trust in you? What qualities, experience, or perspective would you bring to the role of School Board Trustee that distinguish you from the other candidates?
As a regulatory affairs manager, I have many of the same responsibilities as the trustee role: assigning and managing budgets for tasks, collaborating with team member and external experts to find unique solutions to often-unexpected hurdles. I have to balance the interests of different stakeholders (governing bodies, applicants, etc.) which involves a lot of liaising over email and virtual meetings. Researching, problem solving, and communicating, all while managing the budget which was determined before initiating the process. I was also a residence assistant in University, a role in which I was essentially the front-line support for first year university students living on campus, which can be an especially daunting and challenging time for adolescents.
What would you like parents, students and the broader public to know about the role of a Trustee?
Trustees are meant to be a reflection of their community. They represent you and your voice through their service. As noted before, while trustees do not have influence over the curriculum and are not the ones responsible for day-to-day management of the schools, they can set policies which support their communities vision for education. Their vision, not just the trustees. Trustees are what give the community (families, parents, students) a proverbial seat at the table.
How can voters contact you and/or learn more about you?
I am happy to listen and hear more from my community, and equally as happy to answer any questions or speak more about myself if there is any interest. I can be reached by email at SethForTrusteeWard@outlook.com or I can be found on instagram at sethfortrusteeward7
Thank-you Seth for engaging with Hamiltonians on The Hamiltonian!
Just to correct my error: for anyone looking to contact me, the Email address should be sethfortrusteeward7@outlook.com
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