![]() ![]() Secondarily, by working together on a joint project, we five downtown Charlottetown elementary schools wish to strengthen the connections between our school communities. Knowing this, our primary goal is simple and modest: to create informal recreational and social activities, inside and outside the walls of our partner schools, to bring together parents, students and teachers and staff. We recognize that there are many reasons for this, and further realize that is unreasonable to expect all parents to participate to the same degree however we also realize that a very small amount of “engagement” with their children’s education can pay off significantly. In light of the chaos the reigned when the Eastern School District went through its school rationalization 2 years ago, it seemed wise to get out in front of this as parents, and the first step in the process is to get everyone comfortable with each other, and get everyone knowing a lot more about the other downtown schools.Īnd, in part, that was the “real need” that our application for funding sought to address here’s the preamble to our application:Įach school has experienced challenges with parental involvement in the school: while each has a core of parents who are highly involved in school life, comfortable in the school, and participating in the home and school association, there are many more parents who have very little or no involvement at all. And therein lies a sort of alterior motive on my part: we all know that in the years to come there will be changes in the education system that will likely see, at the very least, school attendance zones reconfigured, and perhaps even one or more of our schools closed or changing its role. The very fact of the meeting itself was a very positive step: just getting us all in the same room as each other, talking about our school communities, we all learned a lot. ![]() It was one of those meetings that work as meetings are supposed to: we started with a blank piece of paper, with no real idea of what we might do and emerged 2 hours later with a joint proposal that, we thought, would address a real need. When the PEI Home and School Federation announced its Parent Leadership Grant program last fall, we at Prince Street School thought it would be an interesting idea to make a joint application as a five-school consortium.Īnd so, late in 2011, we had a meeting of the home and school executives of the schools. Each school serves its own neighbourhoods, and while all the students from these schools will eventually end up in high school together at Colonel Gray together, there’s remarkably little communication among the schools, especially at the home and school level. "There's great enthusiasm and excitement for the event," he said.Within a few kilometers of each other in downtown Charlottetown are 5 elementary schools - Parkdale, Prince Street, Spring Park, St. John Howatt, also on the organizing committee, said the focus of the reunion is to "mingle and share memories and meet old friends. Mayor Clifford Lee will also be in attendance, representing the City of Charlottetown. Representing the province will be Health, Social Services and Seniors Minister Doug Currie, a former Parkdale student. The tree planting will be with surviving trustees of the original school, he said, adding they are now in the 90s. The reunion will have food, music, old pictures and a tree-planting event. Those students are all welcome to attend the reunion as well, Connolly said. When it closed, students transferred to Parkdale. There was another school in Parkdale in the 1930s, called Central Royalty School. in the gym of what's now called Parkdale elementary school. The reunion is Sunday, June 30, from 1-3 p.m. "All students and staff, past and present, and their families are invited to attend." At that time, the now elementary school went up to Grade 10, said Pat Connolly, former teacher and principal at Parkdale.Ĭonnolly, who helped organize the reunion, said anyone who attended the school is welcome. It's been 50 years since the first full-time class graduated from Parkdale junior high school and to mark the anniversary, a celebration will be held this weekend.īuilt in 1956, the school held a graduation ceremony that spring, but it wasn't until a year later the first official class finished. ![]() The four men helped organize the upcoming 50-year reunion of the school, scheduled for June 30 from 1-3 p.m. ![]() Bob Stevenson, Pat Connolly, Carl MacKay and John Howatt stand in front of their old school, Parkdale elementary. ![]()
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