Building relationships York board’s priority
New director of education for troubled system says she will be focusing on ‘healing’
Louise Sirisko has been on the job for just a week and she’s about to meet perhaps her most important audience yet: a group of students from Hartman Public School in Aurora.
“I’m a nervous wreck,” says Grade 5 student Evan Li as he walks into the room to meet York Region District School Board’s new director of education.
But within minutes of meeting Sirisko, Evan is relaxed and doling out advice to help Sirisko in her new role of leading the province’s thirdlargest school board for the next five years.
“Make sure you work hard,” he says, to which she thanks him with a highfive.
Sirisko has been hired to bring stability, transparency and optimism to a board that over a tumultuous two years had been mired in incidents of racism, discrimination and a culture of fear.
The incidents led to an investigation by the Ministry of Education and a scathing report last year that found “feelings of alienation, marginalization and discrimination” among parents and staff under the previous leadership. Former director J. Philip Parappally was dismissed in April, just two years into his unprecedented 10-year contract.
Sirisko, who was hired after a lengthy and detailed director search, knows there is much work ahead. So she’s not wasting any time.
In her first week, she has already met dozens of staff and community members, from support staff, to early childhood educators and parents — with one goal in mind: building relationships.
“Building relationships is the foundational part of my first 100 days,” she said, which means, among other things, getting to know as many people as possible by name.
“When I meet somebody, and I pass them a second time in the hall, and I say ‘Hi, Mark,’ they are immediately taken aback . . . so I’m working hard to develop these positive relationships,” she said in a sit-down interview with the Star.
Her first day on the job, she attended a consultation session organized by the parent committee for community members and parents to discuss issues of poverty and classism. A few days later, she attended one organized by the equity committee in Markham on anti-Black racism, attended by more than 100 people.
“We wanted to be really sharing with our community partners, our dedication to this topic . . . and to acknowledge anti-Black racism is something we need to work on, and we need to be supporting our students,” she said.
Sirisko, a former Peel public school board superintendent who had spent the last three years as director of the special education policy and program branch at the ministry, says becoming a director of education has been a lifelong dream.
“My strength is the value I place on the development of relationships, and when you think about where York needs to go next . . . it’s a perfect fit.”
After the ministry released its damning report on the York board last April, then-education minister Mitzie Hunter issued 22 orders to staff and trustees, including a directive to “rebuild trust” and better engage with parents and the community. She also recommended establishing a human rights office and creating a process for dealing with in-house complaints.
Sirisko said she has read the report in detail and says much of the work was done last year, when the province appointed retired Simcoe County District School Board director Kathi Wallace to help the board through a rocky year.
Her goal now is to ensure those “directives (such as a focus on equity) are embedded in everything we do,” and at the same time, helping staff move forward.
Corrie McBain, chair of the board, said the trustees chose Sirisko for the job keeping in mind “the current needs and direction we wanted to take the board.”
“Louise values transparency, relationships, equity and evidenced-based decision-making,” she said. “She will be visible within our schools and communities. She understands the importance of truly connecting with people and thrives on it.”
Sirisko said she has only seen optimism while meeting people in her first few days on the job.
“People are really dedicated to the York Region District School Board. There is a great deal of sadness for what happened . . . people want to work together cohesively,” she said. “There is a lot of healing that we need to be doing, and that’s where my focus will be.”
Sirisko said she’s not afraid to force a culture change. A week into her role, she asked that her five-year contract, which states she will make $274,600 a year, be posted online on the board’s website. “John Malloy (director of the Toronto District School Board) inspired me,” she said.
Details of Parappally’s decade-long contract were kept secret from staff for more than a year, before the Star wrote about it in 2016.
Sirisko admits she has a steep learning curve ahead and she’s not expecting everything to be perfect. But unlike the past, she said, the board will be ready to use their mistakes as a way to improve.
“I will make mistakes, the system will make mistakes,” she said. “But we will be transparent about it . . . and talking about what we can do next time to ensure it won’t happen again.”
McBain says the trustees are also ready to move on.
“Past challenges have given us an opportunity to learn and reflect. We’re ready to move this board forward — beyond where we’ve been.”
“My strength is the value I place on the development of relationships, and when you think about where York needs to go next . . . it’s a perfect fit.” LOUISE SIRISKO DIRECTOR OF EDUCTION, YORK REGION DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD