Ravinthiran grew up in Scarborough, attended local schools
Ravicha Ravinthiran is “ready to tackle problems” at the Toronto District School Board. A graduate of Scarborough schools, the young and energetic new trustee for Ward 11 laid out her approach in an interview with MPulse Scarborough shortly after winning the election.
Ravinthiran won the race by 1669 votes, beating out challenger Curtis Jack. The new, larger ward combines Scarborough Centre and Scarborough North, the old TDSB wards 17 and 21.
Former ward 17 Trustee Neethan Shan is now the city councillor for Scarborough-Rouge Park and former ward 21 Trustee Yalini Rajakulasingam did not run again. This opened up the race to newcomers.
“The public deserves to know where their money is going,” Ravinthiran says.
Ravinthiran told Mpulse that though it was a competitive campaign, the candidates were all friendly.
Ravinthiran, a product manager for an insurance tech company, grew up in Scarborough, attending Knob Hill Elementary School. While she says she knows Scarborough Centre “inside and out,” she’s still getting to know Scarborough North.
In all, she’s responsible for 50 diverse schools from Victoria Park Ave and Eglington Ave E in the South-West corner to Steeles Ave E and Markham Road in the North-East corner.
She told Mpulse that the way she sees it, schools all have different needs and her role will be to help students, parents and communities come together to navigate their unique challenges.
As a long-time local volunteer, she feels she’s well suited to the job and will begin her term by seeking feedback from parents about their top concerns.
While out campaigning, she said she was surprised to hear that many teachers ask families to supply things for the classroom like Kleenex and pencils.
“I have a basement full of pencils,” she said. “One thing we could do is put a call out to the community asking for donations.”
Another common concern had to do with after-hours safety on school property and issues with broken glass. Some parents said they didn’t know who to call or what to do.
Some had never met a trustee before and had no idea the role even existed. Other parents mentioned the difficulty of managing divisive politics and personalities on parent councils, while students told her about bullying in their schools.
As the TDSB is still under provincial supervision, there is no formal role for Trustees. In the meantime, Ravinthiran still hopes to do what she can to represent the ward, facilitate communication and help solve problems.
In the future, if supervision is lifted, she hopes to keep a close eye on the TDSB budget.
“The public deserves to know where their money is going. Accountability and trust are everything.”
When asked about the TDSB supervisor’s decision last year to scrap the new lottery system for special programs, in favour of the previous merit based system, Ravinthiran said, “I think we need both.”
A graduate of the International Baccalaureate program at Victoria Park Collegiate herself, she knows what it takes to succeed in a competitive special program, but also sees the value of giving kids opportunities to try new things.
When asked about political career ambitions, Ravinthiran said she’s committed to the trustee role for now, but wasn’t ruling anything out in the future.
“Supporting my community is my passion,” she said.
