Pictou Academy Class of 1972

This popped up on my feed today

45 years ago today was graduation 🎉🎉👨‍🎓👩‍🎓

For those who love the town of Pictou please read about the future of the Pictou Academy.LETTER TO THE EDITOR
PICTOU ACADEMY ~ NOW OR NEVER
On March 22nd at 7 pm at the Pictou Elementary School, the public can attend what may be the most important school board meeting ever affecting education in the Town of Pictou. The School Options Committee will present its proposal and staff of the Chignecto Central Regional School Board will provide a “technical report”. The 17 elected school board members will use this information to make their decision about the future of Pictou Academy, Dr. Thomas McCulloch Junior High School and Pictou Elementary - the entire education system in the Town of Pictou.
The Chignecto Central Regional School Board has 73 schools, 2,700 staff, and 20,000 students and encompasses central and northern Nova Scotia, stretching from the New Brunswick border to the Antigonish County line and from the Northumberland Strait to the Halifax Regional Municipality. Such a massive school board may not be aware of all of the aspects of our many unique communities. When the School Board staff first presented their recommendation to the elected School Board members to review the schools in Pictou, one version of the report identified three options for the schools in Pictou - all of which led to bussing all of the students from Pictou Academy to Northumberland Regional High School. The removal of any grade from the Town of Pictou would have significant consequences. Think of the IMPACT on the town if the high school is closed…….further population decline, fewer new businesses, real estate values still lower and losing out helping to nurture our youth.
The following is a quote from the Ivany Report entitled Now or Never, which was released in 2014. “The Commission hopes that current efforts to improve the school review process will result in an enhanced willingness and capacity across the province to find the right balance between community needs and the efficient use of resources to deliver high quality learning opportunities. There won’t be a “one size fits all” solution. “
Given the size of the CCRSB and the place that our schools hold in Pictou, there really can’t be a “one size fits all” solution or the introduction of a cookie cutter optimization policy. The CCRSB should be called on to consider the whole student, and that includes the student’s community.
The Ivany Report challenges rural communities to come up with their own solutions to continue to grow and flourish. Retaining Grades P-12 in Pictou is definitely one step that will give the community a chance to do so. In fact, by retaining Grades P-12 in the town of Pictou, the School Board would be following the trend of the new P-12 schools being built in rural communities as in the ridings of Premier Stephen MacNeil and Hon. Karen Casey. Schools are vital to retain and nurture communities. When students are bussed out of their communities the connection between the student and community is BROKEN. The students are no longer part of their community - be it through jobs, volunteering, after school activities or just walking home from school. We believe that Pictou Academy can continue to be a model for education in the Province as it focuses on the whole student. Pictou Academy is strongly integrated with the community in Pictou.
As a 30 year trustee of the Pictou Academy Educational Foundation and an eight year planner of the successful PA 200 celebration held this past summer, I know the value and importance of Pictou Academy. The school was legislated into existence in 1816. Over the last 200 years, it has survived fires, potential closures and school administration changes. Pictou Academy also has an educational foundation, the PAEF. The PAEF was formed almost 100 years ago to support Pictou Academy and its students. The PAEF, alumni, community and friends contrib¬ute more than $70,000 annually in bursaries and enhancements for students (and that amount continues to grow). This $70,000 will NO LONGER be available if the high school students are moved to Northumberland. Pictou Academy has continued to prove its value as it has always had the spirit to embrace change for the good of the student – bussing them to a school outside of town is not one of them.
I am far from alone in recognizing the importance of Pictou Academy. Thousands of graduates returned for the 200th anniversary celebrations last year. In 1969, the Hon. Harvey A. Veniot introduced legislation in the Nova Scotia Legislature saying that there will always be a school in Pictou to be called Pictou Academy. That legislation is still in force. The School Board’s own lawyer provided a legal opinion (almost two months after the School Board’s staff presented the three options that involved closing Pictou Academy) stating that a reasonably instructed court would conclude that the 1969 amendment meant that there would have to be a high school in Pictou.
The decision that the elected school board members will be making will be a chance for them to recognize the value of the education system in the Town of Pictou, to balance the needs of the community with the needs of the education system and to uphold the legislation.
This meeting is crucial. Even by just attending, you will send a powerful message that you support the education system in the Town of Pictou. The meeting is crucial for the elected school board members too. The retention of Pictou Academy can be the opportunity for 17 school board members to recognize they can make a difference. March 22….7 pm…..Pictou Elementary. It is NOW or NEVER!
Beth Henderson PA Class of ‘62

School board staff to proceed with report in Pictou school review The local school board has given its staff the green light to proceed with a technical report as part of the school review process for Pictou schools.

Committee recommends new P-12 school in Pictou PICTOU A local committee tasked with weighing the fate of education in Pictou is recommending a new school be built.

Pictou Academy Educational Foundation will take legal action if necessary PICTOU - Pictou Academy’s Educational Foundation continues to support the school review process, but it also reserves its right to use legal action if necessary, says its chair.

Status quo not an option for Pictou schools PICTOU – Community input is key in the school review process that will consider the fate of three Pictou schools, says a school board member for the Town of Pictou.

A few pictures from the class party

Doucet, English top list of PA awards By the end of Monday night, Casey Doucet and Amelia English heard their names called more than two dozen times.