Introduction
“As a parent living in this community I naturally want the best for my child. I pledge to continue to improve on Guelph’s progressive education policies in a fiscally responsible manner. I passionately believe that fostering more involved partnerships between schools, families, and community resources is one key area we must work on. A better educated community helps everyone in Guelph, not just parents. Better educated students and lower high school drop-out rates result in healthier, more vibrant communities, and improve a region's economic outlook. This is why education is an important concern for everyone.”
Dear Concerned Community Member,
My name is Mark Bailey and I am proud to be a nominee for a trustee position for Upper Grand District Public School Board Wards 1, 5, and 6. I am:
- A Concerned Parent in your Community.
- Owner of an Information Technology Business in Guelph.
- Vice-President of the Old University Neighbourhood Association.
- Married to a Clinical Child Development Professor at the University of Guelph.
- A Former Street Youth Worker in Mississauga.
- A Masters Degree Graduate of the University of Toronto.
- The Son of a Career High School Teacher and Administrator.
My first term as a public school trustee for the Upper Grand School Board was both a privilege and a learning experience. Although a success in many ways, I feel that I've only scratched the surface, and have much more to accomplish before being satisfied that I've made a significant contribution to public education in our city and province.
Highlights of my first term accomplishments:
Chairing the province's discussion on 21st century learning technologies: Worked with a hand-picked group of trustees from around the province to determine the appropriate role of technology in schools. We particularly studied the changing nature of communication and entertainment technologies, and whether such technologies can potentially be employed to engage student learning. The result of our work, 'What If?', was so well received that it led to speaking engagements around the province, including CBC and Global News interviews. The work of our committee prompted the Ministry of Education to set up a working table to continue the exploration that we started.
Championing the construction of eco-classrooms: I worked with community members and board staff to plan for a series of five eco-classrooms to be built around our board. Using funding that could only be used for classroom construction, our board completed the first eco-classroom in Orangeville last year, complete with passive solar design, solar panels, a wind turbine, a rain-water collection system, and many more environmentally progressive design features. These are technologies that our students not only benefit from, but learn about as well.
Chairing the Education Today editorial board: It was my privilege to be selected to guide the editorial board this year in the publication of Education Today, a provincial magazine dedicated to issues in public education. I am currently assisting the effort towards digitizing the magazine, to be made available online. I've also set the agenda of the magazine this year to focus mainly on issues involving preparing our students for the 21st century, and on environmental issues relevant to our students.
Elected as a Regional Vice-President for the Ontario Public School Boards' Association (OPSBA): I was recently elected by trustees in our region to represent seven different school boards at OPSBA's executive council table. I also chair our regional meetings, held every 2 months.
What I would like to accomplish in my second term:
Student Engagement: My top priority will continue to involve exploring strategies to further engage student learning in the classroom. Research has demonstrated that at around grade 6 or 7, a significant percentage of students become disengaged from classroom learning and begin to engage heavily in activities such as social networking and video game play. Given the difficulty in competing with such activities, how can we employ the technologies that students are using in their day-to-day lives to help re-engage them in classroom learning?
Learning Equity: I will continue to advocate and lobby for greater equity in our board, so that every child regardless of socio-economic status, or racial background, has an equal opportunity to succeed. Accusations have been levelled against our board that French Immersion is creating a two-tier learning environment within the public system. We need to take such charges seriously to make sure that all students in our board are provided equal opportunities to live up to their individual potential.
Environmental Issues: I will continue to advocate for environmental initiatives to play a more prominent role in school construction and classroom learning. My first term pledge included having solar panels built on a school roof. Having accomplished this, I'd like to explore the economics of having panels placed on multiple roofs. Provincial funding right now makes such installations financially attractive, as well as providing an important learning opportunity for our students and our communities.
Mental Health: I will continue to advocate and lobby for greater mental health resources in our board, so that we invest the resources necessary to identify and assess potential problems early on in a child's life. Recent studies are reinforcing the link between student 'wellness' and academic achievement, and the earlier potential problems are diagnosed the greater the chances for successful treatment. Financial investments made in a child's life are a fraction of the potential costs for recovery as an adult. From a financial point of view, improving a child's mental health outcome can now be directly linked to their contribution as a taxpayer later in life. From an ethical point of view, addressing the mental health needs of our children is absolutely the right thing to do.
Please visit the Issues Page for more views on relevant issues. I hold passionate views on improving school district communication lines inexpensively, the excessive copyright fees for educational materials our board is faced with, better environmental conservation practices and education in schools, and many others. I look forward to elucidating on these ideas and many more in the weeks (and hopefully years!) ahead.
I'll end by stating that the greatest reason I wish to be a School Trustee is that I have a son who will begin school in less than 2 years, and the changes I can help implement over the next 4 years will affect his education experience directly, and I plan on standing up for him and his generation of students to see that they receive the best quality education possible in this province.
Thank you for taking the opportunity to visit this site. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or ideas concerning education in Guelph, I would love to hear from you.
Sincerely Yours,
Mark Bailey
mark@markbailey.ca
519-731-1913
