Cathy Dandy back for another round

[attach]2920[/attach]Cathy Dandy is a rookie trustee no more.

On Oct. 25, the Toronto-Danforth school trustee regained her school board seat she first earned back in 2006 with an overwhelming majority.

And now that the election’s over, Dandy said she’s excited to continue the work she’s been doing, she’s also looking forward to new projects as well, and finding a way to be more inclusive of the community’s wants and needs.

“I met with all my school councillors in the spring and I said that as part of my system work around community hubs and connecting with stakeholders and moving the board forward, that I would form a local community work group on this issue,” she said regarding integrated services.

Dandy also wants to reach out beyond the schools’ representatives to all students.

“I’m talking about how we bring this down to a school level, and how do students have a voice – and not just at the school council level.”

Additionally, Dandy said she plans to stay committed to all of the people in her ward, as she has in the past.

She said the community can expect to see some impressive results from the delayed start time pilot project at Eastern Commerce.

“We’ve got some initial results, so we’ll be releasing that soon and I think it’s looking quite promising and it’s definitely had a positive impact on learning in that school and on student wellness,” Dandy said. “I think what we’re going to see is certainly higher attendance rates and definitely a higher pass rate in the first period classes.”

A proponent of the pilot project, she added that the idea was based on research that suggested youth’s brains don’t “wake up” until later in the day, so the later start would capitalize on the best time to start teaching.

“The idea behind education should always be not that we teach, but that the students learn,” Dandy said. “So if the name if the game is learning, then let’s do things that help them learn.”