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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1967-09-21, Page 13CONGRATULATIONS..... TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD and Citizens of Wingham on the Official Opening of the NEW ADDITION to the WINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOL We are happy to have been chosen by Andeen Construction to fabricate and erect the structural steel for this new school addition LONDON STEEL INDUSTRIES P.O. BOX 2455 49 BURSLEM STREET DIVISION OF LONDON, ONTARIO PHONE 451-1140 YORK STEEL CONSTRUCTION LTD. NION14101.1011MIIIMMONMINOMMISM•POOONOOPONSIONNOPINNIMINNI PUNK SCHOOL PUPILS MARCHING TO WINGHAM FAIR t1{-#.07 - r. • # Ch. ttAtrgetrl 11- 4-7 ,g,sci^ be Wingham Advance-Times, 'iltittyglay, .Sept, 21, 3.967 Page Board has faced many problems in third addition at public school New study is introduced FORDWICH—The afternoon unit of Fordwich U.C.W. held the September meeting in the Sunday School rooms on Thurs- day. Mrs. Wray Cooper was in charge of the worship service. She was assisted by Mrs. Geo. Pittendreigh who read the Scripture on the story of the talents. Mrs. Cooper gave the meditation on "The Church in an Age of Challenge and Ac- tion". A solo, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" , was sung by Mrs. Jack Wilson. Mrs. George Ashton and Mrs. Ben Gibson were in charge of the program. The latter in- troduced the new study book on Japan and the new program packet was discussed. The roll call was answered by "Ac- tion Counts". Plans were com- pleted for serving the dinner on September 20th for the men of the Presbytery. Miss Minnie McElwain was chosen to represent the after- noon unit at the workshop in Blyth, October 3rd. During the afternoon the ladies quilted and lunch was served by the hostesses, Mrs. Jack Wilson, Mrs. Warren Zur- brigg and Mrs. Lorne Kelly. Looking back over the past few years, in which plans were laid for the erection of a new public school in Wingham is a bit reminiscent of the old story "For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of the shoe the horse was lost.. ," In this case for want of a boiler, the school was lost. It all started when it was found that the boilers in the old 1878 school building could no longer be repaired and kept operating. They were worn out. The board was faced with a peculiar set of problems. To provide heat, a new boiler had to be purchased but modern fire regulations would not condone placement of the boilers in the basement of the old building. To provide new boilers, a boil- er room had to be built; and because of the height of the old structure, a smoke stack as high as the one at the hospital would be required. This was the financial dil- emma faced by the board when it started to make overtures to the Department of Education for grants, only to find that grants Mrs. W. T, McLean has re- turned home after visiting Mr. and Mrs. Perry Patterson of Ni- agara Falls, and Mr. and Mrs. David Millar of Mount Hope. Mr. and Mrs. Fraser Haugh and Miss Eileen Haugh, ac- companied by Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Newton Jr. and Michael of Wingham, visited Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Love of Exeter. Mr. and Mrs. Robert McMan- us of San Francisco are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Mac Allan, at their home here. Mr. and Mrs. Danny Salter of Toronto and her mother spent the week-end at their home here. Misses Aileen Eaton and Mercedes Alexander of Seaforth called at the home of Mr. John Hupfer on Sunday. Mrs. W. Weir and Miss Ger- trude Bush were Sunday guests with Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Dane of Howick Twp. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Graham of St. Marys and Mr. and Mrs. Ron Higgins and family of Strat- ford visited Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Higgins. for such construction are not nearly as high as those made for classroom construction. Toronto officials, in one of the sessions, reportedly asked the board's building committee how old the present school building was. On learning of its antiquity, it was suggested that perhaps the time had come to demolish the old building and start from scratch. LOTS OF RED TAPE Chairman Bill Harris then led his board members through the morass of red tape connect- ed with school construction. His building committee found that if the old school was torn down and modern replacement rooms constructed, the grant picture was much better than if only a boiler room was built. However, once the decision was made to replace the original building, it was found that edu- cational authorities in this mod- ern and enlightened age de- mand that a school should have a library, and the board could only agree that such was a ne- cessity. The planners were next fac- Mr. and Mrs. Fraser Pollock of Brockville, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Allan Hayes, were week-end guests with Mr. and Mrs. Vern Clark, Mr. Ter- ry Clark of Don Mills also spent the week-end with his parents. Sunday visitors with Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ingram were their daughter and family, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Feaver and John of Burlington. Mrs. John Wynen of Harris- ton spent Sunday with.Mr. and Mrs. Clarence White. Mr. and Mrs. Allister Green and family of Goderich visited Mr. and Mrs. George Gibson, on Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. George Mazey and family moved from their home in the village, to Toron- to, at the week-end. Mr. Dick Allan, who is at- tending Teachers' College in Toronto, was a week-end visit- or with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mac Allan. Dr. and Mrs. Macfarland of Winnipeg are al- so visiting at the same home, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Statia and Kim of Topping were week-end guests with Mr. and Mrs. Wes- ed with need for proper indoor physical education facilities — a gymnasium. This section took considerable planning and it became apparent that if such a facility was to be built, it should serve a double purpose and be designed as an auditor- ium. At this stage other commun- ity-minded citizens suggested the gymnasium should be de- signed so that it could be used by such groups as Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. The board concurred and so did the Depart- ment of Education. As the planning progressed, the board found the cost climb- ing, but still within reason. However, money became one of the major problems when the project was submitted to the town council. Council, as such, did not object, being completely behind its school board. Anbther arm of govern- ment, the Ontario Municipal Board, the body which rules on all fiscal arrangements by the municipalities in the province, informed the Town of Wingham that the community's debt level was at the limit. To borrow ley Heimpel. Mr. and Mrs. Murray John- ston and family of Willowdale, visited Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. Art Gibson and family, Wroxeter anniversary service will be held on September 24. Sunday School will be at 10 and there will be no service in Gor- rie. ST. HELENS George McQuillin of Toron- to visited during the week with Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Purdon and the McQuillin family. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Murphy, Colleen and Diane of Stratford, spent the week-end with her parents, Mr, and Mrs. Wilfred McQuillin. Mr. and Mrs. Allan Finlay of Saskatoon visited with Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Webb and Mr. and Mrs. Lorne Woods. Mr. and Mrs. Norman Stew- art of Lambeth were Saturday visitors with her father, Mr. Wm. Forster. Mr. Colin Fingland of Wing- ham had charge of the service in St. Helens Church on Sunday. $400, 000 would, put the town deep in the red it might never see the light of day. Lump GRANT This decision left the school board in a rather peculiar posi- tion: The Department of Educa- tion had given approval for the building program, but the Mu- nicipal Board said the com- munity couldn't afford it. The solution to this impasse came when the powers-that-be in Queen's Park decided the grants for the construction program would be paid in one lump sum. Normally the town would raise the total amount ofmoney to build the school, and as the principal and interest payments on the debentures are made an- nually, the provincial govern- ment makes a grant to help de- fray the expense to the school board, thus lowering the amount of money which hasto be raised by the local council. Once the financial problem had been resolved the board was able to have its architects, Kyles, Kyles and Garratt, pro- ceed with final drawings and have tenders called. Construc- tion on the new building start- ed in the spring of 1966. The contractor, Andeen Con- struction, of Brampton, had by last March, progressed with the work to a degree that the two classrooms on the southwest wing could be put into use. A few weeks later all the class- rooms were completed and demolition of the old school be- gan. Since that time the gym- nasium, library and teachers' rooms have been firtiped and only minor details and land- scaping are yet to be complet- ed. The building program, which was carried out under the cap- able leadership of committee chairman Roy Bennett, has seen the construction of eight class- rooms, library, gymnasium- auditorium, and ancilliary rooms along the corridor which connects the older section of the school to the new wing. The demolition of the old building culminated an expan- sion program which started in the early 1950's and saw the first addition to the school com- pleted in 1952 and the second addition completed in 1956. In total the school has fif- teen classrooms and a kinder- garten. It is staffed by seven- teen teachers under the leader- ship of Principal Stewart Beat- tie, who this year marked his 25th year at his post. Enroll- ment is 464. The physical facilities have been complemented by a con- tinuing program of educational progress in the school, the lat- est of which is the planning by the board for classes in oral French for the senior grades next fall. This year has seen the es- tablishment of a remedial class in an effort to assist those stud- ents who may be having prob- lems in some subjects. The completed program has cost $365,000 and it appears that good value has been re- ceived for the expenditure. Another note of interest is the mural in the new gymnas- ium which was donated by art- ist Guenter Heim, as a cen- tennial project. It depicts the progress of education over the course of history. GOOD LUCK and GOOD LEARNING IN THE NEW ADDITION TO THE WINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOL We were honoured to have been chosen to assist in the construction of this attractive addition. KEATING ELECTRIC For electric heating see Norm Keating' WINGHAM ONTARIO Wroxeter Personal Notes CONGRATULATIONS THE NEW ADDITION TO THE WINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOL IS ONE OF WHICH YOUR TOWN MAY BE PROUD. We were pleased to have taken part in e construction. HELM LATHING CO. LATHING - PLASTER - ACOUSTICS - DRY WALL 61 MONTCALM KITCHENER