Toddlers in Harrowsmith and Parham will be eligible for all day kindergarten when they reach school age in the fall of 2012. The Limestone District School Board announced last week that the early learning program would be extended to the local schools for the 2012-2013 school year.

The two schools will join Sharbot Lake Public School, Prince Charles (Verona), North Addington Education Centre (Cloyne) and Perth Road Public School, who already have the program in place. Other local schools, including Loughborough PS (Sydenham), Clarendon Central (Plevna) and Land O’Lakes PS (Mountain Grove) are not on the list, but the program is designed to roll out throughout the province in the coming years. In the Limestone Board, the roll out has been accelerated in the rural schools, leaving a number of schools in Kingston with the current system, which provides kindergarten two days each week and every second Friday, or half-days, Monday to Friday.

Hinchinbrooke school was chosen as a site for all day kindergarten in 2012 even though it is slated to close at the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

Jane Douglas, Communications Director for the Limestone Board, said that since the students from Hinchinbrooke will be going to a new school in Sharbot Lake in 2013 and the current Sharbot Lake Public School students have the program, it made sense for early learning to be in place one year before all the students are brought together in a new school.

All schools in Ontario are slated for early learning by the 2015-2016 school year.

When the program was initially announced early in 2010, the following criteria were identified for selecting schools for accelerated adoption of early learning: availability of space, community need, existing child care programs, availability of reasonably priced childcare and after school care programming, and student achievement.

Photo: SLHS students were given the opportunity to safely demonstrate proper techniques for rappelling trees.

On March 4, students in the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) – Forestry program at Sharbot Lake High School experienced this old adage first hand. Two representatives from Hydro One, Marty Little and Bob Burke, volunteered their time to speak with the students and to demonstrate proper techniques for rappelling trees. After the Hydro One demonstration, each student was then given the opportunity to safely demonstrate that he/she did indeed “learn the ropes”.

Students in the Northern Forester program, the only Forestry SHSM in the Limestone District School Board, work closely with one another and with lead teacher, Lyle Young as they take the classroom outdoors. At the present time, students have earned their first of seven certifications, chainsaw safety, and enjoy the weekly outings to the woodlot to perfect their skills. Plans are in progress for students to earn other certifications this semester, including First Aid, WHMIS, GPS navigation and Project Wild.

The SHSM Forestry Program is available to students beginning in grade 11 and provides unique opportunities for students. By completing a Specialist High Skills Major, a student earns a red seal on his/her diploma which recognizes that a student has achieved the necessary credits, skills, knowledge and sector certifications associated with a specific industry. More information is available in Student Services.

Special thanks to teacher candidate Eric Weese who organized the experience for the students.

Photo: NAEC students gather core samples from Lake Mazinaw. Courtesy of Dave Deacon

Grade nine students from North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne had a chance to get to the bottom of things when on Feb.23 they assisted Queen’s University geographer Scott Lamoureux and Professor Robert McLeman of the University of Ottawa in extracting core samples from the bottom of frozen Mazinaw Lake near Bon Echo Provincial Park. The research is part of a multi-university project aimed at understanding what impacts climate change may have in store for people of this region. The samples will be used to reconstruct the environmental changes in the Eastern Ontario Highlands over the past several centuries. By involving local communities in the project, the researchers hope to raise awareness of environmental issues and to encourage students to pursue post-secondary training in environmental research.

Participating students from Mr. Hasler's, Ms. Snider's and Ms. Lloyd’s classes at NAEC used an auger to drill holes into the lake ice, into which they inserted metre-long plastic tubes. The tubes were then lowered down to the lake bottom and a weight was used to pound the tubes into the sediment there encasing a core sample in each. The layers in the cores show a history of the environment going back hundreds of years, to pre-European settlement. Two samples were obtained, which students then took back to their classrooms, where they were studied.

Professor Robert McLeman explained what exactly the samples showed. “We saw in both samples, about mid-way through, a large grey streak which points to an event that likely occurred roughly 100 years ago. The streak demonstrates that there was large-scale erosion going on, likely the result of the clear cutting of the forest around the lake.”

McLeman explained how this type of information would give researchers the information they are hoping to gain to get a better understanding of climate change. ”With this research we are hoping to get a better understanding of the trends of long-term environmental trends in the region. We will use the findings to help us plan for the future and help us to adapt to climate change. Similarly, because so many people live downstream from Mazinaw Lake it’s also important for us to understand what changes are happening from a water management point of view.”

Researchers plan to take more core samples from the lake, which will be sent to laboratories for further study. The results will also be sent to the students at NAEC for further learning opportunities.

Professor McLeman was pleased to provide the students with such an exciting and valuable hands-on learning tool. “By allowing the students to practice hands-on science in their own backyard we are hoping to get them excited about the environmental sciences and are also hoping to encourage them to pursue environmental studies later on, either at college or university.”

The Sharbot Lake High School Panthers Senior Girls Volleyball team lost out to Regiopolis High School 3 sets to 1 in the final match of the Kingston Area Secondary School Athletic Association (KASSAA) on Sunday, Feb. 20.

Considering the size difference in the two schools - Regiopolis is a Class AAA school with well over 1,000 students while Sharbot Lake High School has a population that is five times smaller - there was no shame in losing out in the finale of the KASSAA season and bringing home the silver.

“It's been quite a ride,” said team coach Mark Elliot. “The girls have done well. I'm really proud of them. They felt they played their best against Regi, which is all they really expect.”

This week, the team is playing against teams from smaller “A” size schools at the Eastern Ontario Secondary Schools Association Tournament in Carleton Place. The Panthers are seeded second in the six team tournament, with the school from the town of Embrun (located East of Ottawa near Russell) being the top seed. The Embrun team won the tournament last year.

“That puts the pressure on Embrun, really,” Elliott said. The Panther team is a veteran squad, with a number of girls in their fifth year at the school. “The core of the team is the same as last year’s, but the girls tell me they play a lot better as a unit than they did last year. I know they will give it their all at EOSSAA.”

The winning team at the EOSSAA tournament will go on to the provincial finals at the OFSAA tournament in the Quinte region, which starts on March 8.

Photo: Mr. Schneider's grade 2/3 class at PCPS

Students at Prince Charles PS in Verona had a chance to win a cake and eat it too as they and their families got creative in the kitchen, baking cakes for the school’s annual Valentine’s Day cake raffle.

The cakes came in all shapes, colours and sizes and every student had a chance to bid on their favorites. The event is a fundraiser for the Parent Council at PCPS and helps them put on regular events like the Grade 8 graduation, the school-wide free skate at the Frontenac Community Arena, the pancake breakfast and also to purchase gym equipment.

Nicki Gowdy, who chairs the Parent Council said, “The kids absolutely love it and it is a chance for them to be creative in the kitchen.”

Photo: IT technician Darren Asselstine

Many may not know him but they should. Darren Asselstine works hard to keep students and staff at area schools connected - to their school computers, that is. Darren works full-time as an Information Technology Services technician for the Limestone District School Board and spreads out his working hours between Land O'Lakes PS in Mountain Grove, Clarendon Central PS in Plevna, Arden Court in Arden, and NAEC in Cloyne.

Darren graduated from a two-year program in Computer Networking and Technical Support at St. Lawrence College in 2001 and was hired by the LDSB in February 2009.

His job entails maintaining and updating all the computers and technology devices at those sites as well as ensuring that everything on each of their networks is working properly. “I also assist teachers who want to connect their laptops to the school networks so that they can do the work they have to do on their own computers.”

Darren looks after close to 250 computers and by far the largest network he maintains are the 100 computers at NAEC.

Darren makes regular routine visits to the area schools, which he finds is the best way to a manage things. “That way if students or staff at a certain school are having specific issues- they know where to reach me and can contact me in advance.”

In the not so distant future at Land O’ Lakes Public School, Darren will be configuring five brand new Netbooks that will function as mobile mini labs for students. Darren also configures smartboards, an interactive type of chalkboard for different area schools.

Every job has its challenges and Darren says that keeping up with the problems that need attention can be difficult. To make things easier each school has one staff member who is in charge of reporting and placing orders for work that needs doing at each site. “That way I can keep track of what needs doing where and when, which can save me a lot of time.”

Each school has its own individual labs and each lab has at least 30 systems in it. “I have one lab at a site which tends to have a little bit more intensive work going on and there is always something there that needs tending to.”

Asked about available jobs in his field Darren said, “There are not a lot of permanent positions out there right now, which is really just a result of the nature of the market. People are usually hired for a fixed period of time and there's not a lot of turnover.” He's grateful to have a full-time job with benefits and says that the only drawback is traveling from Kingston in the winter months - he is thankful to his parents who gave him a brand new set of winter tires, which he says “help him to get his job done.”

There was much community interest early last summer when the Limestone District School Board’s Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) process for the Sharbot Lake Family of Schools completed its work and the Board of Trustees announced that a new K-12 school would be built in Sharbot Lake by the fall of 2013.

Ever since then there has been silence from the board, publicly at least.

Behind the scenes, however, planning has proceeded, and this week Ann Goodfellow, the trustee for the northern schools, let is be known that an architect has been chosen for the project.

“Within the next month or so a design team will be appointed. The team will include the principals from Hinchinbrooke and Sharbot Lake Public Schools and Sharbot Lake High School, as well as parent reps from those schools, the architect, Roger Richard from the board office and other board staff as needed,” said Ann Goodfellow.

Goodfellow will chair the meetings, which will take place about twice a month until a preliminary design is completed. The representatives from the schools will bring comments and suggestions from their school communities to the meetings, and once the preliminary design is complete later this spring or summer, at least two public meetings will be held before the architect starts working on the final design.

“We are going to be open to all sorts of suggestions, but in the end we can only build what we have funding to build,” Goodfellow said.

The final design will undergo a detailed costing review before it is sent to the Ministry of Education for final approval, a process that will take a considerable amount of time.

The new Sharbot Lake comprehensive school will replace Sharbot Lake High and Intermediate schools, Sharbot Lake Public School, and Hinchinbrooke Public School in Parham.

Land O’Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove and Clarendon Central School in Plevna will remain open.

The new school is slated to be built on or around the current parking lot at Sharbot Lake High School, and the existing school will be demolished.

Photo: Kait Rainey-Strathy with the students at LOLPS

Students in grades one through three at Land O' Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove had a chance to tell their own version of the classic children's story “Where the Wild Thing Are” when five professional artists who are studying at Queens University in the Artist in Community Education program visited their school on January 25.

The five artists included Canadian children's author and former Mountain Grove resident Kait Rainey-Strathy, vocalist Patty Smith, actor/dancer Kristina Murphy, musician Graeme Thompson, and musician/writer Trevor Strong. The five artists treated the students to an interactive creative arts workshop exploring literature through movement and music. The workshop gave students an opportunity to translate Maurice Sendak's classic tale into a performance of their very own making.

The workshop began in the gym with Kait Rainey-Strathy reading the story to the students. Kait is a former LOLPS volunteer and substitute teacher and she was thrilled to revisit her old stomping grounds and work with the students. “The workshop we developed allows the children to take the literature and reinterpret it their own creative way, and allows for the integration of the arts throughout the school curriculum.”

Following the story telling each artist then led the group in a series of dance/movement, music, vocal and drama warm up exercises prior to splitting them up into five separate groups.

Each group was then assigned a specific section of the story, which they were free to interpret in an original way, through drama, music, movement and dance. After a run through, the five groups then put their individual performances together and presented them to their fellow students.

The students had a ball throughout the workshop and made their feelings known when, following their practice run, they all spontaneously erupted into a celebratory cacophony. The visiting artists were also invigorated and happy for the chance for a practical teaching and learning experience with a group of very enthusiastic students.

Teachers Joanne McCullough and Norm Guntensperger, whose classes took part in the workshop, were also grateful. “This is a chance for the students to be exposed to five new artists and to a new kind of approach to literature and story telling,” McCullough said.

Norm Guntensperger agreed and added, “It's always interesting for the kids to get a fresh look at different approaches that sometimes can offer a deeper appreciation of literature. As well, we feel very lucky that these artists chose our school to come to.”

The five artists are looking forward to graduating from the Artist in Community Education program this May.

One day, several years ago, I was attending an event at Sharbot Lake High School.

“McVety,” I heard a girl yell out in the hallway at the top of her voice, sounding for all the world as if she was calling out to a reluctant friend to come over and help her with something.

But she wasn’t calling to a friend, she was calling out to a teacher. Sure enough Randy McVety came bounding over, not at all concerned about the lack of formality, some might say decorum, of one of his students.

All of the students at SLHS are Randy McVety’s students, whether they take a Social Studies course with him or not. The citation that came with the announcement this week that he is being honoured with the J.C. McLeod Excellence in Teaching Award, which is also known in the Limestone Board as the teacher of the year award, includes a paragraph about his central role at SLHS: “Randy is committed to the whole school community, enthusiastically participating in all school events, and often serving as organizer. He is always someone you could count on to do whatever it took to make things happen at the school and within the community. Randy McVety is the heart and soul of Sharbot Lake High School, so much so that he has been named ‘Mr. Sharbot Lake’.”

He is also being honoured for his knowledge of social studies and for the courses he has developed at SLHS.

Again, from the citation: “He is an expert in his field of teaching history, geography, native studies and senior social sciences. As the department head he shares his knowledge, expertise and resources with colleagues and works to support teachers in their own professional and personal growth … He is a long time mentor with Queen's University, helping future teachers develop. He has served with his federation for many years, and various school communities.”

The McLeod awards committee must know something about dealing with sibling rivalry, because they made sure there will be no resentment when members of the McVety family get together over the summer holidays.

While Randy McVety won the McLeod for secondary school teachers, his sister Kathy McVety-Kavanagh is the winner of the award for elementary students. She has been working as a special education co-ordinator with the board and is returning to classroom teaching next fall.

Photo: Sam McKay, Siobhan Weatherby, Beth Lyons, Nicola Edward and Chris Henderson

Having a buddy in high school can often make for cherished life-long memories and it is for that reason that Chris Henderson, an educational assistant at Sydenham High school, introduced the “Best Buddies” program there three years ago.

Best Buddies is a national charitable organization dedicated to “enhancing our communities through developing one to one friendships between individuals with intellectual disabilities and other students in the schools. "The program is grounded in the belief that friendships are important in the development of all individuals and are a medium through which they can become part of the community,” Chris Henderson said.

She says that the program has been slowly evolving over the last three years and encourages School to Community students “to develop friendships outside of theír regular classrooms and enables them to better integrate into the regular stream of the school. It‘s all about positive integration and friendship is one of the best ways to allow for that integration to occur.”

Sydenham was the first school in the Limestone district School Board to adopt the program and Henderson recalled “being hooked” three years ago when a Best Buddies supervisor gave a presentation at the school.

What makes a good buddy? “Dependability by far is the most important thing, along with a willingness to take the necessary time“, Chris said. Buddies are required to make contact with the student they are paired with at least once a week and the goal is to develop a socially appropriate and mutually enriching relationship. Many of the Buddies are also peer tutors in the School to Community classrooms. Because of the tutor relationship, Buddies spend ample time together doing school work but they also share lunches, celebrate festive dinners at Easter and Christmas at the school and participate in other school activities. Grade 12 student Paul Allison and School to Community student Tyler MacComish are buddies this year. Tyler enjoys the program and says the time he gets to spend with Paul is "really great." Tyler is also the advocate for the program and will be traveling to Ottawa in September to be part of the Best Buddies annual conference.

For Paul the program is equally as rewarding. "I enjoy the fact that I'm able to give opportunities to another student in the school and it’s rewarding to feel that you are making a difference the life of that student." One of the things that might stop other students from getting involved is a feeling that with academics and other extra-curricular activities, they do not have the time to participate in the program. However, Paul stresses that "Any time that you can give is well worth it and will make a difference."

Another challenging aspect of the program is the funding, which comes solely from school fundraising efforts. Henderson and her team raised some money at the school’s annual fashion show, where cupcakes baked by the buddies were sold during intermission. She says, “The bottom line is that it’s expensive to do any social activities outside the school especially because of transportation costs. We do our best to try to raise the funds to allow the students to get out and enjoy certain social activities together. Ideally we‘d love to have regular outings at least once a month, but funding limits that.”

Last year the students traveled to Toronto to see a Blue Jays game and this year funds are being raised to attend a Toronto production of the Lion King. Planned fundraisers for the rest of this school year will include regular weekly barbeques once the weather warms up. Volunteers will also be selling tickets for a school-wide raffle that will take place on May 16 and which offers a number of prizes including two tickets, hotel accommodations and Via rail transportation to a Tragically Hip show in Toronto; a golf package at the Rivendell Golf Course in Verona; Cineplex movie tickets; and a $100 gift certificate to the Keg.

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Best Buddies program or in making a donation can contact Chris Henderson at the school at 613-376-3612.