While most students return to school after Labour Day, Monday was the first day on the job for Lesleigh Dye, the new director of education for District School Board Ontario North East.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be here on my first day,” Dye said prior to her first DSBONE School Board Trustee meeting.
Dye was hired in June to replace Linda Knight who served as the education director for 15 years and was involved in education for 48 years.
Lesleigh Dye comes with experience working in the Rainbow District School Board in Sudbury that will serve her well in Timmins as the issues of producing quality education in a Northern community are very familiar.
“As a school board, we exist for students and ensuring that students graduate and get the best possible education is our number one priority,” said Dye. “The board has paid a lot of attention to that and we will continue to do so. “
For the last 11 years Dye has been a superintendent of education for the Rainbow district school board in Sudbury, Espanola and Manitoulin area.
“It came as an opportunity, I knew that Linda Knight had submitted her retirement, and was ready to retire and staying in the north was really exciting to me so I applied for the position,” Dye explained.
Coming from the Rainbow District School board to become the Director of Education for DSBONE, is familiar with many of the issues she dealt with in Sudbury.
“I am finding a ton of similarity between the challenges in the Rainbow District School Board and DSBONE,” Dye said.
“Chief among them is the need to make sure that our students are graduating with a positive for story, recognizing that people are moving away from the north” Dye stated. “So how do we educate our students to keep them in the north.”
“Enrollment issues are very similar across the North, where we are challenged in some of our smaller, rural areas,” Dye added.
“Another important area is how we support our students and communities that are indigenous, as well as school closures and school consolidations where I just experienced an enormous consolidation in the Rainbow District and we are facing similar issues here in Ontario North East,” Dye said.
While Rainbow is twice the size in terms of student population, DSBONE is a larger geographic area and that presents challenges.
“I will be working on with the Administrative Council, consisting of the superintendents and the trustees what are our greatest areas of needs,” said Dye
“We are actually able to be creating a strategic plan for the future,” she said. “That will be very exciting because we want to work with our communities, our schools, our students and figure out our greatest needs as our next steps.
“Lesleigh Dye brings an outstanding wealth of experience, knowledge and abilities to this important leadership role,” said Board Chair Doug Shearer in June when Dye was hired.
“Her vision, caring and direction will ensure the continuing support and success of our students, our families, our staff and our communities.”
Lesleigh Dye was Superintendent of Schools for Rainbow District School Board since 2006.
She has been responsible for many portfolios from kindergarten program, to Indigenous education, Equity and Inclusive Education, adult education and leadership.
Prior to her work with the Rainbow School Board, Dye served as Principal and Vice-Principal of schools in Toronto and Ottawa.
With the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, she oversaw the implementation of the Student Success Initiative in literacy, numeracy and pathways. She also was involved with implementing expert panel reports aimed at improving student success.
With the Toronto District School Board, Dye served as the Central Coordinating Principal for literacy from kindergarten to grade 12.
She has a Masters of Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, a Bachelor of Education from Memorial University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Carleton University. She also has a Certificat de français from Université de Grenoble.
