New Principal at Land O'Lakes
by Ina Hunt Turner

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It may have been a very sad day when Land o' Lakes Elementary School lost their beloved Principal Anne Peace-Fast, due to her retirement; but Joan Dufresne (pronounced Dufrane), who is a very charming and articulate lady and the new principal, is slowly becoming popular with the students. They are certainly getting the benefits of a capable and experienced teacher who is no stranger to this area. Her mother was raised right here in Arden, where her grandfather used to own the Thornton Grocery store, just down the road from where Sarah Hale's Batik studio is located.

Joan grew up in Amherstview and from an early age wanted to be a teacher. She did start off wanting to be a high school teacher and took the courses she needed to take in university in order to get to her goal faster. The problem was that when she graduated from teacher's college she was only just a little older than some of the high school students she would be teaching, so it was decided that she would start off her career as an elementary school teacher.

She first worked in a rural setting in a place called Duttonville outside of London Ontario, after which she worked at an inner city school in London. At that time she decided that she wanted to stay with the elementary system. She has also worked at one of our neighboring schools as a vice principal before coming to Land o' Lakes Elementary School. She has taught  behaviour classes, as well as being one of the first literacy teachers. Her hopes and plans for this school are to promote working on computers and to make the students more familiar with the software. She also hopes to work on the students' literacy skills and their individual strengths. Language is her favorite subject, so we have a good chance that the students will develop a better command of the English language. In the picture she is shown with the school’s secretary Linda Manion, who Joan told me is the real heart of the school, as she knows everyone and everything. I want to extend a hand of welcome to you, Ms. Dufresne, and I hope that you will be very happy at Land o' Lakes School. You are working with some awesome teachers!