The Consolidated School Council, made up of members from the J.W. Walker, Alexander MacKenzie, and Alberton Central school councils, has chosen Sept. 29 as the date for the official opening of the renovated J.W. Walker School.
Arrangements currently are being made, but the event is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., principal Donna Kowalchuk told the Rainy River District School Board at its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night.
The school council also has set the dates for the official closing ceremonies for the schools that won’t be re-opening here in September.
Alexander MacKenzie will hold its closing ceremony May 25 from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. while Alberton Central will have a barbecue at 6 p.m. on June 3 to mark the closing of its doors.
The consolidated council also has approved a playground design for the new school, which will include equipment from MacKenzie and Alberton, as well as the purchase of new stuff.
The public school board’s maintenance crew will be moving the existing equipment beginning the second week of May while the new playground installation is planned for June 12-13.
Also, “Project Green” will commence on June 21 with the planting of a tree by students from each of the merging schools.
The project—designated an Innovative Project by the board—will allow students to participate in the landscaping of the school grounds and playground.
Abitibi-Consolidated will donate 500 trees to plant along school property.
Furniture and equipment purchases for the new school now are being finalized, and staff expect to begin moving in on June 15.
The school council decided the name of the school will remain unchanged, but in commemoration of the consolidation of the schools, it has suggested the library be named the “Alberton Central Library” and the gym be called the “Alexander MacKenzie Gymnasium.”
Paintings of each school also will be commissioned, to be displayed in the main foyer of the new building.
The merging of the three schools has meant their libraries also had to be consolidated. This work, as well as the automation of the library system, has been ongoing since last September.
In an automated library, students are able to search for books by title, author, or subject through a computer program, which tells them where to find the book and whether or not it already has been taken out.
Rudy Zeitlhofer, the teacher-librarian at Fort Frances High School, told the board the system is invaluable.
“The automated system makes it easy to find materials,” he said. “It helps us to manage, maintain, and upgrade the collection. It helps us identify areas where we are weak and where we are strong.”
Zeitlhofer also said it saves the board a great deal of money. The Fort High library has been working on a fully automated system for several years.
“Before the system was put in, we were losing 300-400 books a year,” he noted. Since the computer system—complete with a security system—was adopted, the number of lost books per year has dropped to 20-25.
“That easily translates to several thousand dollars,” Zeitlhofer said. “It also translates into several hundred resources that we can add to the library instead of replacing our losses.”
The automation of the library is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
