By Marcus Brady
The last School Advisory Council (SAC) meeting for the 2017-18 school year took place featured special guest MLA Kevin Murphy responding to questions about the new high school for the Eastern Shore.
The meeting started with the student report given by Co-President Dylan Walsh. Dylan went over what Goodbye Week would be in the school and announced the student council election for next year. DJ Shuman and Kenzie Merlin Will took over as the high schools Co-Presidents on June 11th, and Lauren Johnson was named Vice President. School fundraising for CSLC 2018 in Edmonton Alberta has already started.
The majority of the meeting was focused on the proposed new high school. There were many questions about where the school would be located, Murphy said that a decision would made using a new site selection process, and that the school will be no further east than the current high school and no further west than Porters Lake.
Murphy touched on the fact that the budget for the school is high and could bring in some features like an auditorium/ theater that both the school and the community could use. He also mentioned new soccer fields and baseball fields for school and community use.
The teachers at the meeting made it very clear that they are all for the students in this new school site selection and design process. The teachers also made sure that Murphy knew what they believe matters to the students as far as the budget for the school. There was strong support for the arts and the skilled trades departments, especially the O2 program that has been so popular and important to the culture of the school each year.
The site selection process will be a different type of process than there was in the past. The government wants to avoid taking as long as the experiences with Porters Lake
Elementary and OPA. However Murphy emphasized that there will still be plenty of opportunity for public input and community feedback throughout the new site selection process.
Marcus Brady is a senior at Eastern Shore District High