El Santo owner Alejandro Diaz plans to bring more awareness to issues facing special needs students if he’s successful in his bid for a school board seat on Oct. 20.
Diaz is the latest candidate to announce he is running for school trustee, and the father-of-three knows first hand the challenges and joys of raising a child with special needs. His son Parker is on the autism spectrum and, for the past two years, Diaz has been heavily involved in raising funds and awareness about the developmental disorder.
“For me, New West as a community is great, and I want to get as involved as I can with the community,” he told the Record.
Diaz chose New Westminster to open his restaurant because it allows him to be involved with his kids’ school. He volunteers in the classroom from time to time and has seen a need for increased funding for special needs students.
Last year, his son Parker had to share an education assistant with two other students and while it directly affected his son, Diaz said having to share education assistants also has ripple effects on the rest of the class as well.
“The teacher is focusing their attention on the disruption rather than the curriculum – that’s one of my biggest concerns,” he said.
But tackling these issues is about more than just getting more funding. Diaz wants to see better communication between parents, teachers, principals and the school district.
“Sometimes the parents, we don’t understand the limitations of what the principals and what the teachers have,” he said. “We have to teach the parents how to work with the system. I think that having a better relationship is going to benefit everyone.”
Diaz has worked in the hospitality and service industry since he moved to Canada from Mexico in 1996 and has held such jobs as director of finance for Delta Vancouver Suites. In 2015, he opened el Santo, which specializes in contemporary Mexican food.
