An absence of Muslim trustees on the Toronto District School Board is a 'worrisome' reality, along with an overall lack of diversity in both the schools and the boardroom, according to the TDSB's retiring chair, Bruce Davis.
"It is worrisome," said Davis in a recent interview on issues facing the board ahead of the October municipal election. "I go to a lot of schools. I sit up on the stage, and (on) the stage, our teachers and our senior executives do not reflect the children who are sitting on the floor of the gymnasium.
"Now, that's part of our hiring, and how we hire, how we recruit and who goes into teacher's college," he continued. "The issue of who's on the board is also an issue, but that comes through as part of the quirks of the voting process. So the public has to make a judgement for themselves on who they want on the board."
Davis, who is not seeking re-election this fall, said it "is a good thing" the board now has more male trustees than when he was first elected to represent his current ward of Etobicoke-Lakeshore a decade ago. He said it provides a better balance. In 2000, there were 17 women and five men on the board. The current board has 12 men and 10 women.
However, only about a half dozen of the trustees would likely be classified visible minorities. Davis said it would be better for the city if the board more accurately reflected the diversity of Toronto, where he said visible minorities actually make up a majority of the population.
"And the other thing that's way out of kilter is (with) the number of Muslim students we have. Muslim students and parents, and I don't think we have any Muslim trustees, trustees whose religion is Muslim (Islam)," he added.
Though Muslims make up about a quarter of the world's population, they account for only two per cent of those living in Canada, according to a October, 2009 report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. However, the city of Toronto's most recent statistics, from the 2001 Canadian census, showed Muslims made up 6.7 per cent of the city's residents.
"We (the board), I think, have to be more vigilant in how we identify issues and support our students because different communities and different cultures have different approaches to things," said Davis.
"I'll just give you an example. We're pretty preoccupied with pools, we spend a hell of a lot of time talking about swimming and pools, and saving the pools, and making sure we have enough money for pools, and going to the province for (money for) pools. I cannot recall one substantive conversation around the boardroom table about how we are teaching swimming in a world where (for) a large number of our children, the boys and the girls can't go swimming together because it's just not part of their faith tradition or (accepted by) their community."
"And so, we have kids - and they're all great, amazing kids fighting for their swimming pools - in the boardrooms, scantily clad in their bathing suits trying to promote saving their pool but you know that's out of sync with a very, very large number of our parents of students."
Muhhamad Shahid said the fact there's no Muslim trustees on the board is one of the reasons he's running in the Oct. 25 election to become trustee of Don Valley West, the southern half of which includes the neighbourhoods of Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park, areas with a high population of Muslims from Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a local neighbourhood services organization.
"Diversity is everywhere," explained the project manager, a father of two children attending school in Thorncliffe Park. "When you walk, you see different people from different backgrounds, different regions of the world. And when you see city council or the school board, you don't see that diversity. It's something all ethnic groups, they have to come forward and represent their communities at large and at all different levels."
Though Shahid stressed he wants to represent all of the ward and doesn't support the idea of segregating schools by race or religion, he said there is a feeling in Thorncliffe, where he lives, that the community's concerns haven't been adequately represented at the boardroom table.
He said residents there feel they would have a bigger Thorncliffe Park junior school - currently the school has dozens of portables, he said - if they lived in another neighbourhood.
Shahid also criticized the area's longtime trustee, Gerri Gershon, for not holding public consultations on the Ministry of Education's proposed, and subsequently postponed, sex education portion of its health and physical education curriculum being implemented this fall.
"You will say that has nothing to do with a school board trustee," said Shahid. "Well, it is a school board trustee who is the parents' voice, the parents' representation in the education system. (The) current trustee did not bring that at all, they did not discuss at all. Whether that (curriculum) was good or bad, there should be a consultation on a community level at large before bringing in some change. So that tells that there's no representation of Muslim community at all. That was not a Muslim community-particular issue but it was a whole Ontario (issue) but still, having that large a community in one area, a trustee should discuss that."
Gershon rejected Shahid's criticism that she does not hold public consultations or that the needs of the communities of Thorncliffe or Flemingdon Park have been ignored.
"The issue of consultation is a red herring," she stated in an e-mail. "The curriculum is developed by the province and the province organizes its consultation with experts, parents and focus groups. When the curriculum is ready to come to the Board (it has not yet) principals will organize information sessions and discussions with parents."
"It is my assessment that most parents - including devout Muslim parents- want their children to have the best sex education possible without learning incorrect information from the street," she stated.
She added over the past eight years, various governments have spent or committed more than $50 million for improvements to schools in Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park, including Grenoble P.S., Valley Park Middle School, Marc Garneau C.I. and Thorncliffe Park P.S.
Almost $40 million of that is for the latter school, which serves a highly populated community where families are doubling up in units, said Gershon. She said after the board finished its last expansion to the school, the province then put in place a lower maximum ratio of students to teacher, which necessitated the board reinstall portables. The Ministry has since committed more money for another expansion to the school, and the city will also install a day-care facility there, she said.
"So you can see that at a time of great financial constraint - there are very few new schools or additions throughout Toronto - this area of the city has received a disproportional amount of money and attention," she said. "I like to think that I am responsible for at least part of this intensive focus. I know that I am."
Gershon also responded to Davis's comments, stating: "Every person who comes to the Board table brings a unique perspective - often based on their life experiences, age, gender, religion (by the way, over 16 per cent of Torontonians have no religion), their socio-economic status and many other factors. When voters go to the polls they do not vote for an entire board with the representative number of women and men or Catholics and Muslims or wealthy people and people with moderate incomes. Communities vote for the best individuals to represent their area of the city."
Diversity shouldn't be considered just race or religion, suggested the chair of the board's human resources committee.
"Diversity is not lacking on the board, but it's not as diverse as perhaps it could be," said Scarborough East Trustee Nadia Bello, the first Indo-Caribbean woman on the board.
"As human resources chair at the TDSB for the last three years, diversity is a constant need when it comes to staffing and critical to organizational development. But diversity is also very nuanced - for example we have a critical need for more male elementary teachers to provide good role models for young boys."