York Region parent hoping to join the school board she battled over racial discrimination

Charline Grant, who filed a human rights complaint alleging her children faced discrimination by school staff, is running for school board trustee in York Region and taking on the board’s former chair.

Thstar.com
May 7, 2018
Noor Javed

Two years ago, Charline Grant took the York Region school board to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal after she was hit with a racial slur. Now she is running for a chance to sit on the board herself.

Grant formally announced her intention to run for school board trustee last week, making the announcement on Twitter, saying it was time to take on this “worthy cause.”

The municipal election takes place Oct. 22.

Grant said she has been thinking of an election run for “some time now,” to ensure the positive change that has already started at the province’s third largest school board, which had faced numerous controversies over the past two years, will be seen through to the end.

“I realized I need to be there,” said Grant. “I had heard that a lot of the same faces were in the running, and that was concerning to me. The same faces would mean the same conversations, and the same thought processes.”
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“It’s time for a change.”

Her announcement garnered a positive response on social media: “You are a voice of hope for the entire community,” said Flavio Volpe on Twitter.

She will be running in Vaughan’s Ward 1 and 2 against Anna DeBartolo, who has been a trustee for over a decade. DeBartolo was the chair of the board, when Grant launched her human rights complaint.

DeBartolo did not immediately respond for a request for a comment.

Grant, who has three children in the school board, has been pushing for change since before the board’s troubles became public. In 2016, Grant filed a human rights complaint with allegations that her children faced discrimination by school staff because of their race and religion.

But Grant’s story gained further prominence after she was called the N-word by former trustee, Nancy Elgie, after a heated public board meeting in 2016. After months of public pressure, Elgie eventually apologized and stepped down. But months later, Grant filed another human rights complaint to take on the board for their mishandling of the incident.

Her complaints came during a turbulent time for the board after a damning Education Ministry report found parents and staff expressed “feelings of alienation, marginalization and discrimination.” The ministry’s probe led to nearly two dozen directives, and the dismissal of the education director.

The board selected Louise Sirisko to be the new director last year, and since then she has been working to rebuild the trust with parents and within the organization. The board also enacted all of the minister’s recommendations including opening a human rights office, and implementing equity-based goals.

Grant said despite the progress that has been made at the board, the only personnel change has been the new director.

“The only real change has been the director,” she said. “I have seen and worked with the board of trustees, and I believe I know what’s missing, and I believe I’m that voice.”

“The board needs new voices. They need people who are active in the community, and know what the community wants,” she said.

She says all her efforts, including her human rights complaints, were filed with the simple goal of “sitting down to meet with the board to find answers.”

She settled both complaints with the board. At the time, the board agreed to take a dozen concrete steps to tackle racism within the board including ongoing anti-racism training for all staff, creating additional supports for black male students in the board.

The board also offered an apology to the Grants and the black community, acknowledging that they had come across as “hostile” and “dismissive” to the families’ concerns.

“I want to make sure things are in place to protect minorities and marginalized communities,” she said, adding that she still hears from parents who are having challenges navigating the school system and finding solutions to conflicts. “There are many communities who feel like they still need representation and their voices are not being heard.”

Just a week after municipal election registrations opened up, a number of new names are in the running for trustee.

Lawyer Justin Rangooni is planning to take on incumbent Linda Aversa for Vaughan trustee in ward 3 and 4. Aversa came under fire in 2016, after she was alleged to have pressured staff to boost her daughters marks to help her get into a competitive university program. Aversa denied having done so, and sources told the Star the marks were not bumped up.

Markham also has two new candidates, Sahar Adaskar and Simon Strelchik, running to replace trustee Susan Geller.

The current board chair Corrie McBain (Richmond Hill Wards 1, 2 and 4), Newmarket trustee Martin Van Beek, and Cynthia Cordova, the trustee for Georgina, who replaced Elgie last year, are all also running for re-election