Time to give credit where it is due

Jeff Green | Jan 08, 2014

It has been a complex and sometimes controversial process getting a new school built for Central and North Frontenac residents, and along the way there have probably been a number of miss steps, some of which have been identified by this newspaper.

In the end, however, a $15 million building project has been completed in Sharbot Lake by the Limestone District School Board (LDSB), and the northern part of Frontenac County has received its biggest boost in at least 20 years.

By investing in this community, the trustees and staff at the board office of the LDSB have more than lived up to their commitment towards the rural community they serve, and they should be given credit for that.

The one person who has probably received the most grief from the public over the project is the local trustee, Ann Goodfellow

As part of the process that led to the building of the new school, Ann Goodfellow ended up working through the closing of Hinchinbrook Public School, which was where her own children attended elementary school and where her school board career started as a member of the parent council. She has taken her share of heat for that, and for the location and name of the new school. All of her work, including the backroom arguing and cajoling it took for her to convince her school board colleagues that this least populated part of the LDSB’s jurisdiction deserved its full attention, was integral to bringing the new school to fruition.

Ann Goodfellow stayed on as trustee to make sure it happened, and she certainly was a pretty happy camper on the opening day of the school, deservedly so.

The students who make use of the improved facility will benefit from her efforts and those of her colleagues at the board and the teachers, staff and administration of the schools that have joined together at Granite Ridge.

The PARC process and aspects of the building project, and what ended up being a shambles of a naming process, all had their flaws, as we have sometimes gleefully pointed out.

As late as this past weekend, I admit I half expected the opening to be delayed, leaving students with nowhere to go to school this week.

All that aside, the LDSB came through and completed the building to the point where it is a functional school within 15 months of breaking ground, which is quite a feat.

It is now up to us in the surrounding community to figure how to use the new school as a catalyst for community revitalization.