{"id":6903,"date":"2014-06-05T01:05:17","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T05:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6903"},"modified":"2014-06-05T01:05:17","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T05:05:17","slug":"new-director-of-education-wants-to-continue-boards-ongoing-successes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-director-of-education-wants-to-continue-boards-ongoing-successes\/","title":{"rendered":"New Director of Education wants to continue Board\u2019s ongoing successes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new job is not about change, it is continuing the road the York Region District School Board (YRDSB) has been travelling, according to J. Philip Parappally. <\/p>\n

Mr. Parappally was formally appointed as the new Director of Education for the YRDSB on May 27, succeeding Ken Thurston. His appointment will take effect on August 1. <\/p>\n

Having been with the Board since 2000, Mr. Parappally, 45, says he has said the mission has always been about the \u201cimportance of student achievement and well-being\u201d and this is a vision he not only inherits from Thurston but shares with his predecessor as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not about change, it is continuing the road we have been on,\u201d he says. \u201cLeading up to August, I am talking to as many individuals as possible. It is a great team that we have in York Region and I am doing my best to connect and continue on with the good work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Student achievement and well-being have been the watchwords of Mr. Thurston\u2019s tenure as Director. In recent years, Mr. Parappally says the public board has had the opportunity to revise their mission, vision and values as a \u201ccollective undertaking\u201d and the feedback they received in the process from all stakeholders will hold the Board in good stead for the future. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about public confidence in public education,\u201d says Mr. Parappally, when asked how he defines success. \u201cIt is about the conversations students have with one another. It is the conversations parents and guardians have with students and it is about ensuring that the YRDSB is the destination of choice for all those who live in York Region for their schooling. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is making sure that the individuals come into our school system, at whatever grade or level, graduate and are able to contribute to the world. They are engaging and caring citizens of the world and public education is at the cornerstone of that mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Parappally serves as a Superintendent of Schools for the YRDSB, based out of their Thornhill learning centre. He has held the post since 2008.
\nAlthough he began his career in education over 20 years ago, serving the YRDSB since 2000, his love of education stems back to his childhood. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was a product of the public school system,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a matter of always being connected with the public school system. I remember very fondly the opportunities I had going to school where they exposed me to things my own family could not. When I finished university, I went off to teacher\u2019s college and I would say I never really worked a day in my life in the sense that I really love what I do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to surround myself with wonderful people and I think it is just a great privilege to work with the students that we have. If anyone ever wants a dose of reality, just step into one of our kindergarten classes and see the great work that is happening there. There are kids that are curious, adventuresome, and they will talk to you about any topic.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new job is not about change, it is continuing the road the York Region District School Board (YRDSB) has been travelling, according to J. Philip Parappally. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1Nl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 06:23:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/2014-06-05-01.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}