New portables for St. James Major School

Oct 06, 2011

Photo: students and staff at St. James Major Catholic school in Sharbot Lake

Students and staff at St. James Major Catholic School in Sharbot Lake welcomed the public to an Open House on October 5 to show off their new digs. This past summer the school’s four portables were replaced with four new models, which opened up the school and are providing more space and a brighter atmosphere for students and staff alike.

School Principal, Mike Arsenault, says he is very pleased with the new layout. “Part of our responsibility is provide students with a clean, safe, and ready to use environment so we were looking at what we had and thought of changes that could be made to improve the learning environment. We had to consider the allocation of resources, so we decided to replace what we had with new buildings from another location, rather than trying to repair the old portables.”

The layout of the school has changed considerably and now consists of a larger main hallway and two bigger and brighter classrooms along with a third multi-purpose room, which acts as a library, French room and staff resource center. The back part of the building serves as staff office space.

The school, which is comprised of six staff members and 23 students, celebrated the new changes at an open house that included a blessing of the new school by Father Don Oberwarth, followed by a BBQ and bake sale. Students and staff alike are thrilled with the new accommodations, which were funded by the Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic District School Board.

Principal Arsenault said the new buildings attests to the fact that the board regards St. James Major as a very viable school. “The school board’s willingness to put these new resources into place proves to the community that the board strongly believes that this Sharbot Lake school is indeed viable and that there is every plan for it to continue as such.”