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.

Jared Salmond, a Grade 12 student at North Addington Education Centre, won the OFSAA Character Athlete Award on December 10. The award is sponsored by the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations and is given to a male and female high school athlete each semester. Over the past two years, Jared has been a member of NAEC Senior Boys’ Volleyball team. This year the team had its most successful year in recent memory, finishing fourth in Bay of Quinte and third in COSSA, narrowly missing out on an OFSAA chance. Jared was selected as a winner for the award because of his demonstration of OFSAA’s values of leadership, commitment, respect, equity, growth, and development.

Jared, selected by his peers for the past two seasons to serve as team captain, has always acted in a positive manner both on and off the court. On top of volleyball, last year Jared help start an intramural program for NAEC elementary students and helped with secondary intramurals as well. In the past, Jared has helped with the North Addington Basketball Association and with the North Addington SPIKES program. Outside of school Jared is an instructor with the Mazinaw Lake Swim Program. In all of Jared’s endeavours, he positively demonstrates the core character values outlined by OFSAA.

In a special project, students in Ms. Snider's grade nine Academic English class at Sydenham High School (SHS) were given the opportunity to experience recording their own original songs at Crooked Bush recording studio in Sydenham.

The project was part of an oral skills project that had the students choose from a number of themes related to current teen issues, which included technology addiction, violence, body image, romantic relationships, bullying, smoking, peer pressure, language, friendship, future choices, violence and racism and more. The students were required to create and present to their peers an oral presentation in the form of a monologue, skit, dialogue, narrative, story, advertisement, song or soundtrack, demonstrating their understanding of skilled speaking strategies.

The project was designed to allow students to explore the various media available to them and to encourage them to identify their skills, strengths and weaknesses by doing their own presentations and also by listening to and helping others in the class and in their group.

The group that I met with chose the theme of what others think of them. I met them at the home recording studio of Jason Silver in Sydenham. Silver himself is a graduate of SHS and in fact began recording music while a student at SHS. He is a self-employed computer programmer and records and teaches music in his off hours. Since moving back to Sydenham he has wanted to share with students some of his musical know-how and studio tools.

Prior to these sessions with the students Silver was invited by Ms. Snider to teach a song-writing class at the school and he offered students a chance to record their songs.

At his studio, Melanie Kennedy was in the process of recording her original song "Beauty" and was joined at the microphone by students in her group, Violet Skuce and Hanna Smail. The song tells of a girl who feels ugly because of what people and the media say to her and it tells of her overcoming those feelings after accepting herself for who she is and coming to her own personal understanding of beauty. The song is a mature reflection on the peer and media pressure regarding issues of beauty. In the song Melanie writes, “I had to change my appearance, I wore make up and changed my hair and changed my clothes; this was not fair. I've woken up from this nightmare that they made, I've woken up and here's a price that I paid for beauty. “ It continues, “Now who decides what's beautiful? ...Beauty is more than one thing. Don't be afraid by what they say; Stay confident and be yourself and do this every single day. That is what beauty should be."

Earlier in the day students Alec Asselstine, Troy Speek and Dakota Jost had a chance to record their rap song, which addressed the issue of an unknown future and the dangers of negative behaviors and habits while on the path to it.

I spoke with Ms. Snider at SHS and she said that the project goes a long way in focusing on student collaboration while also teaching skilled speaking, active listening and how to interpret media. The goal is for the students to choose the media that best suit their interests and learning styles in order to create their own original products. “What was really interesting to watch was the students helping each other through the creative process. They'd rally around each other and give lots of feedback, which made for a very rich learning process.”

She said the project allows students a chance to be “emerging creators of media and through the process they will better understand and interpret media messages.” She added that collaboration was also an important part of the project. “Collaboration is a learned skill. When students are engaged they learn how to collaborate. This kind of project allowed me to step back and let the students collaborate with one another to create the best solutions for their final products.”

Officials with the Limestone District School Board are still working towards welcoming Kindergarten to grade 12 students to the brand new Granite Ridge Education Centre on the first day of classes after the Christmas holidays.

But it will take a lot of work for a lot of people before and during the holidays for that to happen.

A newsletter went home to parents of children who have been attending at the former Sharbot Lake public and high schools this week. It outlined some of the features of the new 65,000 square foot school, and said that the board still hopes that the students will have an opportunity to “tour the new building and become familiar with the new surroundings before the holiday break.”

In order for that to happen - indeed in order for the new building to open on January 6 - an occupancy permit needs to be issued by the Central Frontenac Township building department. An inspection is scheduled for Monday, December 16, but Jeremy Neven, Chief Building Official for Central Frontenac Township, said he will make himself available after, even through the holidays, in case all the requirements for an occupancy permit are not met when he does his first formal inspection next Monday. “There are so many details, so much that needs to be in place and fully functional before the health and safety requirements are met for an occupancy permit to be issued,” he said.

He also said that he will need the Ministry of the Environment to complete their inspection of the new septic system on the site before he can issue the occupancy permit.

School board employees are presently able to enter the site in order to move in equipment and begin setting up the school, but they are wearing hard hats and work boots and working under the supervision of Pre-Eng, the company that is responsible for the construction.

Heather Highet, the principal of Granite Ridge, has been seconded to work directly on the transition to the new building since November 1.

She said that all the new furniture for the school is being delivered and put in place this week, and 25 SMART boards, one for each of the classrooms in the new school, have already been installed. Teachers are also well into preparations to move their materials over to the new building as soon as the occupancy permit is issued.

“The kids finish on the 19th and the moving is planned for Friday the 20th and the weekend following. Then the board shuts down for a week over Christmas, and we will be back at it on January 2, so we will be ready to welcome students to the new building on January 6.”

Among the features of the school that will be popular with students and community members alike is one that young athletes and their fans in North and Central Frontenac have been waiting decades for - a 6,300 square foot gym with bleachers that will hold 150 spectators. There will also be a weight room capable of holding Powerfit classes with all new equipment. And thespians and theatre lovers will have access to a 1,000 square foot stage in the new cafetorium with seating capacity for 250 for concerts and performances.

The new building will also include a number of features that should ensure its comfort and efficient operation into the future.

Once the students are in place in the new building, work will begin on the demolition of the existing building, a process that will take a couple of months to complete. In the spring, final landscaping work will take place to complete the elementary school sports field and the parking lot.

Heather Highet said that a further newsletter is planned for next week to provide parents with details about how to access the school in early January. The board expects to hold public tours of the new building once the dust, and the students, teachers and staff, have settled in the new building.

On December 6, "Frosty Friday" was held at North Addington Education Centre. The secondary students participated in a fun-filled day of activities, like tug-of-war, "Minute to win it," and NAEC’s "Next Top Model." The high school was divided into four house groups; N, A, E, and C, and competed against each other for the honour of winning the title of best house.

The day started off with a pancake breakfast provided by the school to the elementary and secondary students. After eating, the houses split up to work on their house cheer until going off to one of four different activities. The activities were short competitions for each house individually. They competed in "Minute to win it," "Molding minds", three-legged race, and six-person skiing. After a break for lunch, the houses cheered themselves on in a cheer off, and then had a tug-of-war tournament. A sled race after that, finished the physical activities. Then, the most anticipated activity of the day, NAEC’s top model! Four lovely guys showed their confident sides and competed in a fierce beauty pageant.

At the end of the day, and a long battle, N house was declared the winner! All students had an exciting day and enjoyed the formal that evening. The day was organized by the NAEC Students Council.

Big changes are underway at Sydenham High School as the construction of the brand-new 14,000 sq.ft. state of the art learning facility is nearing completion.

Located on the west side of the school with frontage on Rutledge Road and Mill Street, the addition includes a new 5000 sq. ft. gym that has a 26 ft. ceiling and is equipped with wheelchair-accessible men's and women's change rooms, and a bright south-facing computer lab lined with newly milled maple/ walnut counter tops that will house 30 work stations. The addition also includes a wheelchair-accessible drama facility complete with a mini theatre with 90 retractable seats, an attached controls room, plus ample change rooms and a storage room for props.

The new space also houses the school's “Foods Program” facility which includes a traditional classroom to which is attached a new state of the art industrial kitchen in a bright room with floor to ceiling south-facing windows. The kitchen boasts ample stainless steel counter tops and a array of shiny new stainless steel appliances, numerous gas stoves, and convection ovens plus a large walk-in fridge and two free-standing freezers.

I toured the new facility with Vice-Principal Brent Pickering as the builders continued their work polishing the new terrazzo floors. He said that the project has actually been in the works for six years. Construction began 14 months ago and is slated to be finished before the second semester starts in February.

The project was made possible with provincial funding through the capital expenditures budgets and cost over $3 million. Initially the addition was to include just four new classrooms but thanks to the input of SHS teachers Jeff Sanderson and Leslie Lawlor, who worked closely with the Limestone District School Board's Director of Education, Brenda Hunter, the project was reconfigured with the goal of creating a space that would best fit the needs of the students at Sydenham.

A tour of the school's current facilities, which the new facility will be replacing, demonstrates why both students and staff at the school are excited. The drama facility is currently located in an old storage room, a small black 600 sq. ft. space that can barely contain the class that I saw working there. Similarly, the Foods Program facility is presently housed in a cramped old science lab, making instruction and practical work hands on kitchen work difficult at the best of times.

The project was designed by Armando Sardinha of H.M. Sardinha Architect Inc of Kingston and is being constructed by Cupido Construction of Kingston.

Pickering says that the new space will offer students a top-notch learning facility and will also give members of the community at large a new space where they can carry out their own events.

“The new drama space and the theatre in particular will be a great asset to various groups and organizations in the community. The new foods program space will give students a real leg up when they go looking for jobs in the hospitality industry since they will be learning on equipment used in the industry.”

The new addition will also mean that two of the school's three portables will be able to be used for much needed storage space.

Also in the works are plans for two new electronic signs, which will let the community know of school events and which will also promote local community events.

Tabitha Kirby, who is the lead foods program teacher at the school, said she is looking forward to moving into the new facility. “I am thrilled that the students will have the opportunity to work in an industrial kitchen that reflects real life situations, which will really help their employability. The new space also means that we can do larger caterings than those we are doing right now.”

Right now the students prepare the hot lunches at Loughborough Public School and cater SHS's end of year graduation.

Pickering said that staff who have had a chance to tour the new addition come out with the same standard response: “It is an amazing space and will be a great new learning facility for the students and a place for the community to take advantage of as well.”

Gary Auerbach uses his skills as both a former world freestyle Frisbee champion and as an inspirational speaker to help young people learn the tools they need to be successful.

Auerbach, who won the World Freestyle Frisbee Championship in 1995 while living in Toronto, has been speaking to youth at school assembly programs for close to two decades.

He made a special visit to Land O'Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove on November 21, where he engaged the entire school in an assembly and conducted small workshops focused around Frisbee skills. “It's not so much about showing them what I can do with a Frisbee but showing them what they can do with one,” Auberbach said. “Frisbee is the perfect life-long physical activity that they can do with family and friends and it gets them outside, away from all the little screened boxes and puts a fun circle in their hands.”

Auerbach was invited to the school after LOLPS student support teacher Kathy Bateman saw Auerbach years ago at an Ontario Physical and Health Educators' Association conference. “I loved what he did and have wanted to get him to come to Mountain Grove for years now,” Bateman said.

Auerbach, who is a citizen of both Canada and the United States, now works and lives in Winchester, Virginia but comes to Canada often to visit family and friends. Mountain Grove was just one of the two Canadian stops on this trip and he captured the attention of the LOLPS students from the get go. He demonstrated the many ways to throw, roll, balance, juggle, flip and handle a huge assortment of Frisbees in all shapes, colours and sizes. He told of the history of the Frisbee and how it was modeled after tin pie pans made at the Frisbee Pie Company in Connecticut, where workers liked to toss the tin plates around on their breaks. After plastic was later invented, the first Frisbees, which were then called flying saucers, were made from it. Later they would be named Frisbees after the owners of the Connecticut pie company.

Auerbach delivered a polished performance and his lively sense of humor and friendly delivery had students smiling, laughing, and generally falling in love with the game. What staff liked most about him was his underlying message. LOLPS Principal Emily Yanch said Auerbach's presentation fit in perfectly with the school board's focus on the development of “growth mind set” in students. “The idea is to encourage effort and perseverance in students and to show them how both pay off in terms of becoming life-long learners,” Yanch said.

Auerbach's presentation reinforced those ideas. When he demonstrated one “next to impossible” under the leg move but did not succeed, he quipped, “It's okay to mess up but not to give up." He then tried the move again with the words “Take two!”. He had the students mesmerized with the huge assortment of Frisbees he performed with: a yo-yo style Frisbee, a long-tailed Frisbee, a tiny baby one, a kite-tailed one, a huge oversized yellow one, a pizza Frisbee, a feather-tailed Frisbee, one ninja, one Elvis and a recycled plastic Frisbee, a flying saucer, and one with raised markers, which is used by the visually impaired.

He spoke of initially being scared of Frisbees but gradually overcoming his fear. After a lot of practice he became good at it and later on a world champion. He likened the flight of a Frisbee to the way an airplane wing works. "Throw it straight - it goes straight; tilt it upwards and it flies upwards.” He showed how to angle or blank its flight, and how to fly it upside down.

Auerbach invited any students with new Frisbee ideas to let him know. The students I spoke to said the presentation inspired them to play the game and some even said they planned on making their own yo-yo style Frisbee at home.

On November 12, NAEC students attended breakdancing workshops with professional dancers Melly Mel and Rahime. The Grade 5/6, 6/7, 7/8, and Restart classes, as well as nearly 30 Secondary students, took to the floor in a high energy dance workout. Melly Mel and Rahime took students through a series of moves, slowly at first, and then at an increased pace. They then put the moves together, so that students were performing a full dance sequence.

The workshops were geared to the ages of the students, so Rahime and Melly Mel had students doing different moves and routines.The students really enjoyed the high energy workshop, and felt they had really worked hard. The next day student Josie Chaisson remarked on how much work it had been. “It was really fun, but my legs are really stiff today,” she said. “Imagine how they must have felt after doing a whole day of dancing!” The workshop was one of the many offered by MASC, an arts organization based in Ottawa.

The workshop was subsidized by a generous donation from The Crabtree Foundation, which made it possible for NAEC to afford a full-day workshop. It was also subsidized by The North Addington Guild, which helps NAEC students experience arts opportunities they would otherwise not be able to. Readers interested in learning more are directed to www.masconline.ca and www.bboyizm.ca

Special guests at NAEC’s Remembrance Day assembly was a visiting group of paratroopers from Mike Company, 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based at CFB Petawawa. The assembly featured several students. Breanna Tryon and Cassandra Parks-Delyea were the emcees. Ms. Buck’s Grade 5/6 class recited “In Flanders Field”, and Sierra Baldacchin, Camille Cote and Madi Lessard recited it in French. Mrs. Fuller’s Grade 1 class sang “It’s a Small World”, and Mrs. Snider’s Kindergarten class recited a poem called “Poppy, poppy”.

Sgt. Cornish introduced the paratroopers to the assembly, and a short video outlined the history of the Canadian Armed Forces. As in previous years, the visiting paratroopers ate lunch with the secondary and elementary students, played with them, and visited classes to talk to them about life in the Armed Forces. Students had a variety of questions prepared for the visitors, ranging from personal interests to skills needed in the Armed Forces. As well as chatting with students about life in the forces, the visitors also watched Ms. Buck and Ms. Cuthill's classes performing a "cup song", which involved a coordinated, rhythmic performance in which students clapped and banged cups on the floor.

Notes on Municipal Budgets

Central Frontenac BudgetNorth Frontenac Budget

Municipal councils throughout the region have been struggling with their 2009 budgets over the past few weeks, with most of them nearing completion of the process.

Evaluating municipal budgets is difficult because there are a number of factors that contribute to the ultimate result for ratepayers: a tax bill that either goes down, or most often, goes up.

Tax bills are made up of three charges, which are all added together. The first charge, making up 22%, is for education taxes. The province collects this money, and it is set to collect the same amount in 2009 as it did in 2008. The second charge, making up 21% of the total, is for county taxes. Frontenac County has raised municipal taxes by 2.9% this year.

So, when township councils began to work on their own budget, which makes up 57% of residential tax bills, there was already a slight increase in the number of dollars they would be taking from ratepayers.

Municipal councils have very little in the way of fiscal leeway to work with. Unlike federal and provincial governments, they cannot run deficits, and there are new regulations each year from the provincial government that must be dealt with - regulations that cost money to live up to. And then there are rising fuel and other costs, as well as increased expectations from ratepayers.

On the other hand, local municipalities have the benefit of very limited real growth in their tax base. For example, the treasurer in Central Frontenac estimated that tax assessment increases that are due to growth in the township totals about 1% this year.

In the end, municipal councils have found it difficult this year to keep the increase in the levy they end up charging to ratepayers under the standard 3% inflationary increase.

In our reporting on budget debates this year we have focused on the levy to ratepayers, which in the case of North Frontenac has risen by $265,000, or 7.7%. On average, North Frontenac ratepayers will pay 7.7% more for local services, in addition to an increase in what they pay for county services.

There is an added factor in municipal taxes that has nothing to do with the decisions that councils make, but affects how much people end up paying in a big way, and that is municipal assessment. Every property owner in Ontario received an assessment notice in October, and it determines our share in paying for the overall municipal budget.

The increase varies from property owner to property owner, but the general trend is for waterfront property to rise more than non-waterfront properties, so if you are reading this while overlooking a field you will likely see a moderate or no tax increase this year, but if you are looking out on the lake, you could be facing a much larger increase.

The impact of property assessment is so great on the amount people pay that it dwarfs that of the levy increase.

Take North Frontenac Township as an example. Education taxes, which have been frozen on a province-wide basis, will go up for most North Frontenac residents because the average property assessment in North Frontenac has gone up by more than the provincial average - 7% more. The county levy is up by 2.9%, as mentioned, and the municipal levy is up by 7.7%

So, for people whose property assessment stayed the same, taxes will go down, but for most people taxes will go up, and for some, taxes will go up a lot.