Keep ADHS name: students
By STEVE PETTIBONE, THE RECORDER AND TIMES
What's in a name?
Apparently, the answer is plenty for 131-year-old Athens District High School (ADHS) and some of its future students.
"I feel because we're coming here, we're going into high school, so the name should stay," Brad Wells, a Pineview Public School student set to join more than 80 other Grade 7 and 8 students at the school next year as it makes the transition to a Grade 7-12 format, said at a transition meeting held at the school on Tuesday night.
Wells's sentiments were echoed by two other pending ADHS intermediate students. The meeting, the last of its kind for the school, drew a group of approximately 25 parents, teachers, administrators, community members and Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) superintendents and trustees.
With the potential name change garnering little traction around the table, the consensus was reached that the team will suggest in its report that no change be made.
The possibility of a new moniker was one of many key transitional issues discussed by the team, as it followed up on its November 24 meeting, at which teams chronicled lists of tasks and issues in the areas of: facilities, programming opportunities, safety and communication.
Among many suggestions made for facility enhancements at the last meeting, the team discussed things such as increasing the school's available Internet bandwidth, adding two portables, and putting up retractable walls in the cafeteria to allow students in the intermediate and secondary panels to share the same lunch time.
Principal Gord Phillips said the influx of Grade 7 and 8 students is one cafeteria contractors look forward to given the current struggle to draw students to the lunchroom.
"There's lots of space," Phillips said. "It's under-used right now."
ADHS music teacher Jim Palmer agreed.
"Right now, I'd be surprised if there's 30 students using it right now at lunch time," Palmer said.
Palmer also expressed no issues with the possibility of adding a dedicated portable for music classes at the school, provided it contained the proper ceilings and other physical characteristics required for proper music instruction in such an environment.
"As long as it's a purpose-built facility, it's fine," he said. "There are some examples out there we can look at."
Noting the issue wasn't addressed at the school's previous transition meetings, John McAllister, UCDSB trustee for Athens, Elizabethtown-Kitley, Front of Yonge, Leeds and the Thousand Islands and Gananoque, said he would like to see accessibility covered in some way in the team's report.
He mentioned the possibility of putting in an elevator for wheelchair accessibility or other enhancements that might be needed for the benefit of physically disabled students.
Haydn Hanna, student parliament prime minister at the school, countered that perhaps chairlifts would be the best option.
But Claude Ouellet, a community representative on the transition team, wondered where the funds would come from to pay for these types of enhancements.
"Do you have the budget for that?" he asked.
Some around the table noted that the school doesn't currently have any students who would require the enhancements, nor are there any registered for the upcoming school year, meaning the school might have some time to get the upgrades in place.
Valer ie Allen, the UCDSB superintendent overseeing the transition team, said the cost issue would be a tricky one, but noted there are low cost options that could be looked at in terms of setting up a long-term plan to make the school fully accessible.
On the matter of student security, there were some suggestions about keeping the exterior doors to the Grade 7 and 8 portion of the school locked during in-class hours, as well as continuing with the current Pineview Public School practice of allowing the intermediate students to go downtown for lunch on Fridays only.
The recommendations stemming from the transition meetings will be compiled by UCDSB staff and posted on the board's website, after which Allen said team members will be contacted again to make sure no issues have been left uncovered.
Following this, the team's final recommendations will be forwarded to the board in the form of a formal report.
Hundreds of area intermediate students will make the transition to several of the board's high schools, including ADHS, Thousand Islands Secondary School and Brockville Collegiate Institute, in the fall of 2012 as part of the UCDSB's Building 2020 process.
For more information on the transition, visit the board website at www.ucdsb.on.ca and scroll down the right-hand side of the page to the "Building 2020" link.
steve.pettibone@recorder.ca
Posted December 7th, 2011