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ELECTION: School trustee Township candidate David Tod

A Voter’s Guide to key election questions.
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David Tod

David Tod

Running for school trustee in the Township of Langley

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Teacher, 58

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Have you held office in past? If so, please specify:Yes, I was elected four years ago to the school board.

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Candidate provided bio:

David has lived in Langley since 2002, residing in the Willoughby area. He is a father of four (with a child attending a Langley school) and has taught for 34 years. David has first hand knowledge of what is required to successfully navigate a child through the education system, especially those who experience difficulties with their learning.

David has prioritized engagement with the school district stakeholders (DPAC, parents, staff, district leadership and students) in his first term as trustee. David has acted decisively at the board level on several key issues including the right sizing of Langley Secondary School, the building of the new RE Mountain Secondary School, and the expansion of elementary spaces in Willoughby. His top three priorities for this term are advocating for capital funding for new schools, revitalizing relationships with parents, staff, students, and our First Nations, and ensuring that the new education funding model is fair.

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Website: davidtod.ca

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Phone: 604-857-2843

Who is your favourite superhero, and why? Superman. He has always been my favourite! He is a visitor here who helps make the world a better place.

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There are 12 candidates running for seven positions on Langley School Board. The following are questions asked of each trustee hopeful. They were directed to provide a minimum of a Yes, No, or Don’t Know answer, and given an option to expand on one answer in print (to a maximum of 100 words per question). They could expand on all questions online, if they wished to do so. The following are their replies.

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Questions and Answers:

1. What neighbourhood of Langley do you live in?

Answer: Willoughby

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2. How many years have you lived in Langley?

Answer: 15 years

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3. How many Langley School Board meetings have you attended in the past year?

Answer: All except one last November (my daughter’s wedding).

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4: Do you support the use of the SOGI resources in Langley schools?

Answer: There is a SOGI123 resource. I have downloaded many of the lesson plans and I consider them appropriate for my own daughter.

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5. Should school districts once again have authority over municipal school taxation?

Answer: No.

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6. Are school administrators overpaid?

Answer: No. If you want Quality schools, you need quality leaders.

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7. Should the province have the power to dismiss school boards?

Answer: Only in extremely rare circumstances ( fiscally irresponsible).

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8. Should Langley offer incentives to attract more teachers?

Answer: No.

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9. Do schools rely too much of parent fundraising efforts?

Answer: Yes, unfortunately.

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10. Should the district do more to lobby for new schools in the faster growing areas?

Answer: Yes, we will need to more lobbying and advocating.

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11. Do you think the province is underfunding public education?

Answer: Yes, we need to catch up.

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12. Should the school district solicit corporate money by way of sponsorship to fund education?

Answer: No.

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13. Should the school district cut down on using technology, like iPads and computers – to save money?

Answer: No.

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14. Should the district have a strategy to reduce portables?

Answer: Yes.

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15. Should we re-instate the previous busing boundaries for students?

Answer: No.

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16. Should students requiring extra attention – such as ESL or those with behavioural or learning disabilities – betaught separately from other students?

Answer: No.

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17. Do you support increasing the amount of international students to help fund education?

Answer: Yes, where there is room.

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18. Should a trustee live in the community they want to serve in?

Answer: Yes, ideally.

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19. Should there be a limit to the number of consecutive terms a trustee can serve?

Answer: Yes. Four.

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20. Should the district redevelop vacant school sites to bring in revenue?

Answer: Don’t know, we have sold sites but I’m not sure about redevelopment.