In response to the release of the provincial Education Quality and Education Test results, the communications department of the Limestone District School Board (LDSB) might score well, above the provincial average, if they were being tested for creative writing skills.
The headline on the LDSB release that accompanied the province wide release of results, which took place in late September, was the following: EQAO results show achievement in some levels continuing to improve.

While it is true that results for Special Needs students in the board improved, the other result that was touted, a narrow improvement in grade 6 reading and writing scores, is diminished when you look at the comparative data in the tables at the bottom of the release.
In every single category, Limestone’s results lag behind province-wide results, by an average of 12% on the three categories tested in grade 3, 8% in the categories tested in grade 6, and 6% in the grade 9 math test.

The only parity in the release came from the scores of Academic stream English students, who met the 92% provincial success rate in the literacy test. Applied level English students, at 40%, were 4% behind the provincial average of 44%.
Math results, in particular, are a concern for all ages of students in the LDSB.

47% of Limestone grade 3 students tested at the provincial standard level in math (the provincial average was 62%) and only 39% of grade 6 students reached that level (50% - provincial average).
77% of grade 9 Academic stream math students in grade 9 reached the provincial standard (83% - provincial average) and 38% in the Applied stream reached the standard (44% - provincial average).

“We have, and will continue, to make math teaching and learning a priority among our staff and students,” said Limestone Board Director of Education Debra Rantz, in response to the results. “We have been getting better at the early identification of students who are not meeting math expectations and we will remain focused on supporting these students.”

While there are some exceptions, the results in primary schools in Frontenac County tend to be at below the rest of the Limestone Board in terms of results.

Again math continues to be a difficulty, but there is some good news at the High School level. Grade 9 students at Sydenham HS are actually at or above the provincial average in math scores, and Granite Ridge EC students are not too far behind, while the results at North Addington EC lag quite a bit, but in North Addington’s case the small number of students makes it difficult to generalize from the results.

Grade nine students at Sydenham High School participated in a special school orientation event at the Gould Lake Outdoor Centre on September 25, which geared them up for the school year. Organized by the school’s grade 11 recreational leadership class under the direction of SHS teacher Mark Richards, the event had students don their school colours and participate in a number of games and activities at eight different stations. The activities included potato sack races, tug-of-war and a number of other games.

According to Mark Richards the annual event has two key aims. “It provides an opportunity for the grade nine students to get acquainted with their peers while having some fun and also gives the grade 11 students a chance to demonstrate their leadership skills.”

The new students learned the SHS school song "Bobaloo", which no doubt will be heard at the annual Bubba Bowl tonight, Thursday, October 9 where Sydenham’s junior and senior Golden Eagles will be taking on the LaSalle Knights. The junior game kicks off at 6pm with the senior game to follow. Admission to the game is $2 and the canteen will be open. Proceeds from admission will be used to cover the cost of the event and to support SHS athletics.

The most interesting aspect of the 2014 municipal election in Frontenac County and Addington Highlands thus far has been the races for Limestone School Board Trustee.

In the Township of South Frontenac, the election has become bitter and personal thanks to the arrival of Kingstonian Lindsay Davidson onto the campaign scene, where she is doing battle with incumbent Suzanne Ruttan.

(see candidate profiles and video at http://www.frontenacnews.ca/south-frontenac-municipal-election-2014)

Essentially, Davidson is calling Ruttan a puppet of the school board's senior administration. Ruttan voted to close two schools in Kingston and build a new school at an as yet undetermined location.

Davidson, whose son attends one of those schools, Kingston Collegiate (KCVI), sat on the committee that was set up to look at the future of secondary schools in downtown Kingston, and is now one of five people who are requesting a judicial review of the decision to close KCVI and Queen Elizabeth (QECVI) schools.

Suzanne Ruttan has struck back. On two occasions, Ruttan has asked why Davidson is seeking to become a trustee of an institution that she is suing.

Davidson's response that she is not suing the board, that she is merely seeking a judicial review of the process, doesn't seem to get much traction.

At an all-candidates meeting at the Sydenham Legion on Monday night, Oct. 6, all of the questioners during the school board segment of the meeting took dead aim at Davidson, asking why she was not running in North Kingston, where she lives.

Although she said she is running in South Frontenac because she is basically a rural gal at heart, and chose to live in rural Kingston, on Glenburnie Road, for that reason, some of the very public assertions that Davidson has made in recent months reveal a tendency to blame the rural schools for the troubles facing the urban Kingston high schools.

In an op-ed published in the Globe and Mail, Davidson compared the closing of PDCI in Peterborough with the plan to close KCVI In Kingston, and said this: “It was noted by observers in Peterborough’s school debate that rural trustees representing districts outside the city limits drove the final closure vote. The vote in Kingston exhibited the same rural-urban divide seen in Peterborough. Four of the five votes supporting KCVI closure came from trustees representing municipalities outside of Kingston.”

All things considered, voters in South Frontenac have grounds to be suspicious of Lindsay Davidson's commitment to their municipality, but the trustee election has given her a forum to launch a full on critique of the way the Limestone Board operates, and some of those criticisms are pretty effective.

That critique, coupled with lingering controversies about Granite Ridge Education Centre, has set the stage for the trustee election in North and Central Frontenac and Addington Highlands.

All three candidates in that election, (Dave Kendall, Steve Magee, and Karen McGregor) who are profiled on page 12 of this edition, are critical of the board in various ways.

The cumulative effect of what has been written and is now being voiced at all-candidates meetings, is to question just about everything about the way the board's administration operates. It is being called unresponsive, opaque, anti-rural (and perhaps anti-urban in Lindsay Davidson's case) among other things - and this is by the people who want to become its trustees.

The Limestone Board, like all institutions of its size and constraints, likes to present a carefully constructed, wholesome image for itself. Problems are downplayed as sunshine sketches are released for public consumption almost daily. Disgruntled staff, and there are many, voice their critiques quietly, in whispers, way off the record.

It is hard to say where all these critiques of the board's operations will go once the ballots are cast and everything gets back to normal.

But, at least for now, all the fissures and cracks have been revealed underneath that polished limestone.

Maybe the board should have been made of harsher, stronger rock - say pink granite.

Award-winning and much sought after groups are confirmed to perform at the Classy Country Evening, in honour of The Tristin Osborne Memorial Fund and the Limestone Learning Foundation. The evening features superb music, casual dining, and dancing Saturday, September 27, at Dreamcatcher Farms, 3185 McGarvey Road, Inverary. The Abrams Brothers will headline this year's “country” gala, September 27, from 5 p.m. to midnight, along with Grammy nominee Valerie Smith, and dancing with music by RUDY and Saddle Up! Guests will enjoy a “Taste of Tennessee” dinner along with entertainment from student musicians Emma & Sam McNichols and Brielle LeBlanc, as well as a live auction. Tickets are $125 per person and are available by contacting the Limestone Learning Foundation at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 613-544-6925, ext. 210. Last year's event was sold out. Safe ride home program generously sponsored by Robert Hogan Bus Lines.

Over 60 members of the community filled the gym at Clarendon Central Public School in Plevna at a special meeting on September 15 that was called over a recent decision of the Limestone District School Board (LDSB).

Michelle Ross, co-chair of the parent council at CCPS, said the group called the meeting to voice their concerns about the LDSB’s decision to decrease the number of teachers at the school, effectively changing it from a three-classroom school to two classrooms.

Barb Fraser-Stiff and Andrie Labrie, both superintendents of education with the LDSB, were in attendance at the meeting and made efforts to explain the board’s decision.

Former principal at the school, Brenda Martin, began the meeting with a presentation citing her concerns that the decision will negatively impact the teachers’ ability to deliver the curriculum and said to the attendees, “You realize that this is the only school in North Frontenac Township, a school that has been here for 52 years and that your education dollars should remain in the township.” She argued for the viability of small local schools and commended the parents whose efforts kept Clarendon Central open after the LDSB’s Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) proposed several years ago that the school be closed.

In a nut shell Martin requested that the primary teacher position be increased to full time to meet the needs of the students, and regarding the junior/intermediate students she said that their needs cannot be met by just one teacher alone. “For older students it is impossible for one teacher to cover the required topics in the curriculum even in a two-year cycle.”

Barbara Fraser-Stiff assured her that it is manageable for a single teacher to integrate the math and English curriculum, but Martin replied that her biggest concern is the science curriculum. “Yes you can integrate language and math but when it comes to science, it is impossible for one teacher to cover all of the necessary components required,” she said.

Parents had a chance to raise their many concerns, which included the added stress and challenges to teachers who will have to teach more curriculum with less classroom support to a wider age group. They said that there will be less one on one instruction time and more interruptions for all students. Many said they fear that their children will not receive a satisfactory education that will prepare them properly for high school. They also cited less time for support staff to do the regular supervising that is needed for such a wide age group.

Fraser-Stiff said that she understands that it sounds impossible but that the new changes can be done. “It's been done before.” Both she and Labrie gave as examples two schools in the LDSB, one on Wolfe Island and the other on Amherst Island that have two classrooms serving JK–grade eight students. The Amherst Island school has been operating for over a decade and Fraser-Stiff said that its graduates are thriving.

When questioned about the lack of discussion that came with the recent announcement, Labrie was apologetic but explained that the decisions typically happen in September once the finalized numbers of students are known. He said that similar changes have taken place at one third of the schools in the LDSB.

One concerned parent quoted the Spring 2014 Technical Paper put out every year by the Ministry of Education outlining the Supported Schools Allocation, which provides additional funding for teaching and ECE staff to improve the viability of supported schools. She said that by definition Clarendon Central is one such school and she wondered why staff are being cut when in the paper, it states that combined schools with 50 or more elementary students generate funding for a minimum of 7.5 elementary teachers. “Surely if you do the math, with 39 students here we should be able to support four teachers.”

North Frontenac Councilor Lonnie Watkins asked why the $1.6 million in education taxes collected in North Frontenac could not keep three teachers at the school. He also wondered why the $350,000 allocated to special rural schools could not afford to keep the current number of staff in place.

Labrie replied that 80% of the money pays the salaries for staff and the rest goes towards maintenance of the building, and busing. “You can see when you break it down how those funds can get used up pretty quickly.”

When pressed further, Labrie said he would check with other members of staff who know more about the particular financial numbers being questioned. Another parent wondered why local students in the area should be allowed to be bused to other schools if decreasing enrollment is the reason for the cuts in the first place.

Steve Magee, who is running as a candidate for school trustee in North and Central Frontenac and in Addington Highlands, suggested waiting one year to make the changes, thereby giving both parents staff and students time to adjust to the new situation.

By the end of the meeting, though Fraser-Stiff and Labrie could not make any concrete promises to parents and staff, they did promise to raise all of their concerns to their senior team and said they would get back to the group as soon as possible with any updates or changes. “We recognize that this community here is asking for some help and support in this matter and we will bring everything that we heard here today back to our staff.”

One parent said that the announcement of the changes has caused stress to staff, parents and students alike, with many parents feeling their children have already lost out during their first month back at school.

Parents and staff are obviously hoping that the situation is resolved quickly.

CCPS Principal Emily Yanch said she “appreciated the parent community organizing the meeting, and hearing their concerns being addressed by members of the board.”

On September 5, Granite Ridge Education Centre students and staff enjoyed an afternoon in the sun participating in colour house challenges and a BBQ. Points for their colour houses are earned through participation in theme days and special activities organized throughout the year. The events featured for the afternoon were: puzzle games to get to know some of our new staff, parachute games, obstacle courses and the very popular water sponge game. The clap challenge led by Ms Robinson was a great way to involve all students in a rousing cheer to end the day. What a great ending to the first week of school.

Students and staff at the Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake gathered for a special ceremony celebrating the recent planting of the school’s new tree nursery. Shawn Lavender, who teaches the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) program at the school, invited grade nine students in the SHSM forestry program to speak about the new nursery, where the students planted dogwood, sugar maple, and white pine trees. One of the goals is to replace each tree that was cut down during the construction of the new school with 15 new trees.

The project, which was funded with the help of grants from the Limestone Learning Foundation, the TD Bank’s Environmental Fund and Lowe's of Kingston, who donated the sawmill to the school, is part of the provincial government’s goal to plant 50 million new trees in the province. The nursery project was chosen by Lavender to allow students in the SHSM program at Granite Ridge to acquire skills and knowledge in sustainable economic and social activities.

Each grade nine student in the SHSM program was invited to plant one tree with a 3D label attached with their name. The labels were designed by the students with the help of Ms. Hurley using the school’s new 3D printer. Mr. Murray, who runs the wood and auto shop programs at the school, had students create the wooden signs that identify the new nursery using wood from trees cut on site and cut on the school's own saw mill. The students prepared the site and planted it with 400 new seedlings.

At the ceremony, students Dustin Granlund and Nolan Teal spoke about how the new nursery “will allow for carbon at the equivalent of 100 plane trips from Montreal to Vancouver (the equivalent of 100 tons of carbon) to be captured from the atmosphere in a single tree’s life time.” Students Craig Schonauer and Bailey Green spoke about the other projects the students undertook in the program, which included their maintaining part of the Lanark Mazinaw Forest by clearing a 20-acre parcel and “stripping it of iron wood, striped maple and small white birch thereby enhancing the mass trees and encouraging their growth while maintaining a healthier forest for animals and nature lovers.”

Last to speak was forestry student Robert, who spoke about Granite Ridge's forest management plan and the nursery project whose goal was “to remove the undergrowth and invasive trees on the property and to open the area for mass canopy trees and encourage the growth and regeneration of sugar maples, pine and dogwood”.

Shawn Lavender led the presentation and thanked all of the students and staff involved in the project as well as staff and representatives from the LLF and the SHSM program, who were present at the event. They included Leslie Myles, Mike Sewell, John Chomitz and Shawn Lehman. Mr. Lavender concluded the presentation with the words, “I like to think that we are doing our part here at Granite Ridge though our tree planting and continued involvement with our community partners to improve the landscape and restore our area back to pre-European times. This is an initiative that the government has mandated in its forest operations and we would like to succeed in restoring pine back to 14% of our landscape from the 7% that it is today.” Following the presentation students and staff enjoyed an outdoor barbeque lunch at the new nursery site.

Among $71,000 in grants handed out by the Limestone Learning Foundation this week, Loughborough, Harrowsmith and Perth Road Public Schools, as well as Granite Ridge Education Centre, received grants.

Loughborough Public School received $4,000 to support a project to mark the 100th anniversary of the school. In the 100 Years of Education For All project, special needs students in the school will take a leadership role in creating presentations about the history of the school using alternative media formats. The grant will be spent on software and hardware to support the project.

Harrowsmith Public School is receiving $3,000 to purchase iPads for the “Look What I Did Today” project, which will be used in the kindergarten classes to facilitate the Reggio Ameila practice of student documentation. This approach is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment based on the interests of the children through a self-guided curriculum.

Perth Road School is receiving $2,200 for musical instruments which will be used to set up a School of Rock program after school. Once the program is up and running, students will have several opportunities to show off their inner rock star at assemblies and talent shows.

Granite Ridge Education Centre will receive $4,000 to purchase fabric and art supplies for an art mural and history project that will depict the history of the community and the combining of three schools that created Granite Ridge.

Editorial by Jeff Green

Granite Ridge Education Centre is a few days away from its formal ribbon cutting/grand opening ceremony. A lot has been said in the community about the decision to build a comprehensive school for the region (which drew a mixed response); its location (a mixed to negative response); and its name (negative with only a few glimmers of support). The jury is still out, and likely will be for a few more years, about how good an educational and public use facility the school will be in the long term.

One thing is clear, however; the decision to open the school in January of this year was done at the expense of the elementary students who are now attending Granite Ridge.

While hindsight is 20/20 a bit of foresight can still go a long way.

About a year ago, when the 2014 school year was being planned by Limestone Board officials, a decision was made to open Granite Ridge in January of 2014, no matter what.

There were other options at the time. One was to leave everything as it was and keep Hinchinbrooke and Sharbot Lake public schools open for one more year, including the busing. This may have been more costly operationally, but the advantage would have been that Hinchinbrooke students would have the benefit of a playground and a full gym all year long, and Sharbot Lake students would at least have had a yard. No one would have attended classes in a portable, as the combined group did up until Christmas. In September, they would have moved over to a completed school, including a proper bus loading zone, a yard to play in, etc.

Secondary students would have had a year that was similar to 2013. They would remain in Sharbot Lake High School through the fall, which happened anyway, and if the new school was complete after the first term or after the March break, they could have moved over. The demolition of Sharbot Lake High School could have been scheduled for the beginning of July, leaving 6-7 weeks for landscaping of the new site.

But that is not what happened.

Instead, Granite Ridge was officially born in September of 2013. Hinchinbrooke students were squeezed into Sharbot Lake Public School, which had been outfitted with portables. This was originally to have been the case for only two months, but it was obvious from the start that Granite Ridge would not be completed in the fall. High school students were in the Sharbot Lake High School building, as they had been the year before.

Later in the fall, with the new building still not ready, board officials must have felt they had no choice but to stick to the January opening precisely because they had closed Hinchinbrooke school. Having squeezed all the elementary students into an inferior facility after closing a better one, how could they leave them there for more than half a year?

In any event, with Granite Ridge still under construction, the decision was made to start moving desks and everything else into the new building. They had come to the point of no return. The new school had to open on January 5.

And, even though it was only under a conditional occupation permit, pending some still incomplete requirements, the students started attending the new building.

Elementary students were no longer in an old school, but they also no longer had a playground to play in. The small enclosure, which rumour has it has been nicknamed “the prison yard” by at least one of the teachers, is not a playground.

When spring finally came, the demolition began, and the students are now going to school in a building that is still under construction, next to a demolition site.

The idea behind Granite Ridge Education Centre is to establish a coherent, caring, school community where children who come from a geographically and economically diverse area can come together and learn.

Certainly as far as they youngest of them are concerned, and some of these students were as young as 3 or 4 years old last September, the 2013-14 school year has been one of dislocation and confusion.

These problems will likely fade away by September, and Granite Ridge will have an opportunity for a re-start, but the roll out has been a disaster.

While there are always growing pains when a new school is built, the case of GREC stands out because it was easy to see coming, and would have been easy to avoid.

As the Limestone Board moves on towards major school construction in Kingston, they might take all that went on in Sharbot Lake this year as an object lesson. Next time, wait until the new school is finished - really finished - before moving the students in.

NAEC once more demonstrated a determination to end bullying at their Day of Pink on April 9. Students gathered for an assembly, wearing pink or Day of Pink pins. This year, several community members were a welcome addition to the assembly. The assembly started with some remarks from Grade 9 and 10 students. Brittany and Shannon Delyea, Lucas Parks-Delyea and Breanna Tryon welcomed the students, staff and visitors and talked about the Day of Pink in general, and what NAEC and the community can do to stand out against bullying. Brittany, Shannon and Lucas were attendees at a recent conference on the subject.

Included in the assembly was a video put together by the Pink Panthers, a group of Elementary students who are committed to ending bullying. They are Kaitlyn Rosenblath, Matt Emslie, Madi Lemke, Mackenzie Johnson, Chantal Keller, Madi Lessard, Olivia Bence, Avery Cuddy, Camille Cote, Cassandra Parks-Delyea and Luc DesRosiers. They asked fellow students and some staff members what “anti-bullying” meant to them. The resultant videos were edited and compiled by Mr. Pelow. Photo by Devin Gagne-Baldacchin

The assembly was invited to visit the hallway by Mr. Pelow’s room, where the Pink Panthers had placed two mural papers. To pledge their intention to prevent bullying, people were invited to trace their hand with a pink marker and sign inside. By the end of the day, the murals were full.

Posters and art with a Day of Pink theme were displayed in all the hallways of the school, as the whole school got involved with the spirit of the day. NAEC is hoping that more community members will come next year, so that bullying is eliminated and “every day is a day of pink”, as Lucas Parks-Delyea said.