The much-loved International Baccalaureate (IB) program at I.E. Weldon Secondary School is under increased scrutiny by the local school board because of cost-cutting.
It was a small gesture, in a way, but one that affected the rest of my life, as small gestures so often do. The time was the mid-1980s, and I was in Grade 12 at I.E. Weldon. I wasn’t a great math student, but for some reason I was still taking functions and relations, with David Auger — well, he was Mr. Auger to us, of course — as my teacher.
I thought he was nice enough; he seemed kind, if awkward, and he encouraged me despite my lack of aptitude for his subject.
It’s 1:07 pm and the hallways of I.E. Weldon Secondary School in Lindsay are more alive than usual. Students are milling around, signs tucked under arms.
They seep out of the school and gather just off school property, forming long lines of anticipation until they become a single, large mass.
Just after 1:15 pm – the time when about 80,000 students across Ontario are doing the same thing – Grade 11 student Tisza Pàl address the assembled students with a megaphone.
Hundreds of students in Kawartha Lakes are expected to walk out of class at 1:15 pm Thursday to protest the PC government’s cuts to education.
While Trillium Lakelands District School Board’s position is they would “prefer students didn’t,” according to Catherine Shedden, district manager of corporate communications, they are “welcome to do so peacefully.”
Shedden says they know area schools are interested in expressing their disagreement with recent announcements from the provincial government on education matters.
Catherine Cadigan, a student at I.E. Weldon Secondary School in Lindsay, is the recipient of the highest honour that the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) can bestow upon a student—the Student Achievement Award (in honour of Marion Drysdale).
Cadigan won the senior grades 11–12 university category in the prose or poetry division of this prestigious award for her entry entitled, Starting at the Top. She was supported by OSSTF/FEESO member Bentley Larson.
As most students were easing their way into March Break, 11 teams of science students from I.E. Weldon and St. Thomas Aquinas assembled in a room off Weldon’s cafeteria to compete in the second annual Lindsay Engineering Challenge late last week.
Only after they sat down at tables strewn with balsa wood, foam board, glue guns and other paraphernalia did they learn that their design challenge would be to construct a glider that, propelled by a launcher mechanism, could sail the length of the cafeteria while remaining within boundary lines.
If StatsCan and the Peterborough Workforce Development Board are correct, kids entering high school this year and hoping to live and work in the City of Kawartha Lakes after graduation would be wise to choose trades — especially construction technology as an elective course. The PWDB projects that the City of Kawartha Lakes will see a 39 per cent increase in demand for carpenters between 2017 and 2024. That is the largest increase shown among surveyed occupations, surpassing elementary school teachers (5 per cent), truck drivers (18 per cent), and even sales representatives (27 per cent).
Three generations of a family with Iranian roots.
Three different experiences of Lindsay. If you don’t already know them, meet the Yazdanis.
Helen and Khosrow
Let’s start in the middle, with Helen and Khosrow, who are in their late 50s and have been in Lindsay for over 30 years. I talked with them over tea and cinnamon-scented Noon Youkhe pastries in their home.