Julie Babin crochets one of the items that will be up for auction at the LRHS Japanese exchange art auction on Friday night at ADJA Studio and Gallery on Main Street in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)
It will be the first foreign exchange trip for Liverpool high school students since before the pandemic.
And they and their parents are holding a fundraiser on Friday night to help get them there.
Ten students from Liverpool Regional High School are planning a cultural exchange next year with kids from a high school in Yokohama, Japan through the Nova Scotia International Student Program.
Julie Babin is one of the parents organizing a silent auction and fundraiser at ADJA Studio and Gallery on Main Street in Liverpool, from 7 to 9 p.m. It will feature local visual art, crafts and baked goods donated by people from the community.
“There will be anything from knit items, photographs, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, all kinds of cool stuff to help these kids get their goal met and get to Japan.”
People will be able to bid on items at the gallery on Friday night. And the auction will continue on Facebook next week.
Babin says the students are working hard to reach their fundraising goal for the two-week trip.
“They’ve been working their little fingers to the bone to try to fundraise for the past six months. They’ve been doing beef jerky fundraisers, we have a fudge fundraiser going on, 50/50 tickets, bottle drives.”
She says the Queen’s Enviro Centre in Brooklyn is accepting donations of bottles for the trip. People just have to tell them it’s for “the Japan trip”.
The group has to raise $5,000, with each student expected to pay another $3,500.
Babin says they’re pretty close to their group goal. But any money raised above $5,000 will help lower the students’ expenses.
“If we can get that, the kids feel pretty good. … It’s exciting for them to see it slowly go up. We have a couple of more things on the horizon but we’re really hoping that this fundraiser gets us to that goal.”
Her 16-year-old son, Desmond Danylewich, is one of the 10 students going on the trip next July.
She said he’s excited to experience Japanese food and culture first-hand.
“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime to go and get to just immerse yourself in the culture of Japan. He’s looking so forward to trying real sushi and real tempura. It’s going to be exciting for him.”
Babin said it will also be interesting for students and parents to host 20 Japanese students in Liverpool for 10 days in April.
“So every one of our students will have two Japanese students come stay with them. See what eating Canadian food is like, going to school in a Canadian school. And then they’ll also get to go on excursions.”
Babin says they’ll be accepting art and craft donations for the auction right up until Friday evening.
“If you made it, we will appreciate it.”
And she says most of the kids going on the trip will also be at the fundraiser on Friday.
“7 to 9, come by, see the art, maybe lay a couple of bids, meet the kids. They’re pretty stoked to talk about their hopes for it and they’re really excited for the Japanese kids to come here.”
The LRHS Japanese exchange art auction begins at 7 p.m. on Friday at ADJA Studio and Gallery at 177 Main St. in Liverpool. You can leave donations for the fundraiser at the gallery. And you can also follow the event on Facebook.
Crews are working on the $3-million Liverpool Community Sports Field at Liverpool Regional High School. (Rick Conrad)
There may be a little short-term pain this fall for some big long-term gain for Liverpool’s high school soccer teams as they wait for a new multimillion-dollar field and track to be completed.
Crews are working now on building the $3-million-plus Liverpool Community Sports Field at Liverpool Regional High School. It will feature the South Shore’s only all-weather, year-round track and a new artificial turf soccer field.
Kristopher Snarby, president of the Queens County Track Society which is leading the effort, said the field likely won’t be finished until November. And depending on the weather, the new rubberized track probably won’t be ready until early spring.
“They’re working hard, they have a camper on site and the crew’s actually living in the camper and working pretty long days,” Snarby said Tuesday.
“We’re hoping that the field will be done late October, early November and the track itself, it depends on weather in terms of when they can lay the track. So the track will either be done in November as well or it will have to wait till spring when things are little warmer. So things are coming together fairly well. We kind of had a pipe dream that the soccer field would be ready for this fall, but that’s not going to happen unfortunately.”
In the meantime, he said the high school’s boys and girls soccer teams are working with the middle school in Liverpool to use that field for practices. He said they’ll likely have to find another field outside Liverpool for their games.
Despite having to wait a little longer than they’d hoped, Snarby says it’s gratifying to see the project coming together.
“There have been so many people pushing for this for so long, it’s nice to finally see the end result coming together. The contractors that are doing the work are doing a great job there. They’re working really hard to move along as fast as possible.
“It’s just really exciting to know that the community is going to have this facility in a few months. And it’ll be great to see people start to use it. I’ve had inquiries already from other areas who are interested in renting the field to have some higher level soccer taking place there. So that’s really positive. It’s just really exciting for sure.”
The track and field project got a $1.8-million funding commitment from the federal government, $1.2 million from the province and $250,000 from the Region of Queens municipality.
Snarby said his group will be launching a private fundraising campaign in the next couple of weeks to cover other costs, such as a shot put and discus throwing area.
He said doing those separately from the main project is cheaper.
“The costs to do it as a whole project were extremely expensive. So we had to pull them out of the project and we’re still going to get them done, but they’re going to be quite a lot more cost-effective.”
Snarby said that as long as construction continues to go as planned, everything should be ready for use by March or April next year.
Ava Smith and Koen Shand are Grade 12 students at Liverpool Regional High School. They’re helping out with the LRHS Scholarship Auction 2024. (Rick Conrad)
The graduating class at Liverpool Regional High School may be relatively small, but they’ve had a mighty significant impact over the years on students going on to higher learning.
Since 1998, the Liverpool Regional High School Scholarship Auction has awarded more than 400 Queens County students over $500,000 in bursaries to help them pay for their post-secondary education.
The 26th annual auction kicked off on Facebook on April 18. And this year, for the first time since before the pandemic, the fundraiser wraps up with an in-person silent and live auction event on Thurs., May 30 at the high school.
Koen Shand and Ava Smith are two Grade 12 students who are part of the 40-person-strong organizing committee. About 25 of those volunteers are students themselves, which is about half of the graduating class. Parents, teachers and other community members make up the rest of the organizing committee.
“It’s pretty impactful,” Koen says of the auction. “It’s just nice to know that we are such a small town and we do have that support that you might not get from coming from a big city. It’s just nice to know that we have these organizaitons backing us up.”
“I think it’s nice to feel you have a lot of people in your corner,” Ava says, “you have a lot of people rooting for you. It’s nice to know that you have a big community, a big family here that’s wanting you do well and is going to be there when you need help.”
Koen will be going to Dalhousie University next year to study engineering, while Ava plans to attend Saint Mary’s University and then on to Mount Saint Vincent University for an education degree.
They said they were eager to help out with the auction because pursuing an education is so expensive. They’re both involved with various extra-curricular activities at the school — Koen with the Key Club and various sports teams, and Ava as Nova Scotia International Student Program ambassador and as co-president of the student council.
“This is up my alley, I love helping out with this stuff,” Ava says. “I just think it’s good to get involved and help give back to the community that’s always helped, especially here since it’s such a small community, it’s such a supportive one.”
“My school has given me lots of opportunities, lot of memories, playing sports, doing multiple things,” Koen says, “and I just think whatever I can do to give back and help our grads succeed.”
Organizers expect to get more than 200 items, in addition to monetary contributions, donated from local businesses and residents for the online and in-person auctions. They’ve already auctioned off dozens of items.
The last time an in-person auction was held, it raised about $20,000. Since it went online, it has raised between $25,000 and $40,000 each year.
Students are awarded bursaries based on need and their contribution to school life. In previous years, about a third of the class received the awards, which ranged from $500 to $2,000.
“It’s not based on your academics,” Ava says. “It’s based on what you’ve done to contribute to the school and in the community. Which I think is really good because there are lots of kids in our school who might not have honour rolls but are still an active member in our community and an active member in our school. Which I think is great that they are getting money they deserve.
“I think receiving money like this helps to kind of take the weight off a little bit. It’s still going to cover some of your classes, your books, maybe it’s going to cover your meal card, and even though it is obviously not $25,000 to cover your year, anything that contributes helps a lot. It also lessens the amount of student loan you’re going to have to take out.”
Ava and Koen are excited to participate in Thursday’s in-person event. Students will be helping to display the items up for auction, with Al Steele as the auctioneer.
When asked how much people should bid at the event, Koen has some simple advice.
“As much as they want. It’s going to a good cause, so feel free.”
More than 100 people attended a meeting at Liverpool Regional High School on Monday evening to address community concerns about the Astor Theatre. (Rick Conrad)
Updated April 10, 9:05 a.m.
Community members finally got some answers on Monday night about the recent conflict that has engulfed the Astor Theatre in Liverpool.
More than 100 showed up at a meeting at Liverpool Regional High School called by supporters of former Astor employee Ashley-Rose Goodwin.
The two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting was at times raucous, revealing the rifts that have rocked the Astor over the past month since Goodwin resigned as associate artistic director.
The meeting was originally called to dissolve the current board and elect an interim one until the annual general meeting in May.
The first 45 minutes of the meeting were consumed with arguments between the organizers, who claimed it was a legitimate meeting of the Astor Theatre Society, and board members, who said it wasn’t. The meeting went ahead anyway.
Goodwin has led many popular youth-focused theatre camps, workshops and productions at the theatre over the past few years.
She resigned from the Astor in March. That was shortly after the large-scale adult musical Follies wrapped. Goodwin directed that production.
Her resignation upset many parents whose kids participated in her workshops and productions. It quickly erupted into a sometimes very personal and public fight.
They alleged that the Astor board and recently hired executive director Jerri Southcott made it impossible for Goodwin to stay.
Other people claimed that the Astor was “changing direction” under Southcott and alleged she was trying to engineer a merger with her Mahone Bay-based South Shore Summer Theatre.
At a town hall meeting on Sunday, Astor board members and Southcott refuted those allegations. They said the direction of the Astor has not changed and that they are still committed to involving the local community. The board also said that talks with South Shore Summer Theatre predated Southcott’s hiring, but that they are now off the table.
On Monday evening, it was obvious that many parents and others want Goodwin back at the theatre. Parents spoke about how their kids have benefited from being involved in Goodwin’s productions, how great she is with youth and how she ensures all kids feel respected and included.
Also on Monday evening, it became obvious that many of the issues around Goodwin’s employment and eventual departure were festering long before Southcott even applied for the job.
Goodwin has been silent publicly since her resignation. But she broke that public silence on Monday, explaining why she left the Astor.
Long before Southcott was hired, Goodwin was asking the board for more money. She said her productions were generating a lot of revenue for the Astor and her salary did not reflect that extra benefit to the theatre.
She was also holding private voice and music lessons at the Astor as part of her Mersey Rose Theatre Company
She told the crowd Monday she was being paid $1,200 every two weeks, and that as a single mother, that wasn’t enough to support herself and her four sons.
“Money was being brought in and all that was from my students that I made relationships with, that I brought in, and they wouldn’t put it on top of my salary, even though I was begging for them to give me more money because it wasn’t enough to live off of.”
Late last year, Goodwin mounted a winter solstice show at the Astor, which she created with her youth theatre group.
“I didn’t see any of those donations at the door. Nothing. And I was the one that wrote the show, I wrote the show with the kids. It was all me, I did it by myself. And I don’t see any of that. And I don’t think it’s fair that an entrepreneur who agrees to work at the Astor doesn’t see any of the money that comes in to boost her salary. How is that OK? It’s not OK.”
After Southcott was hired, Goodwin claims she was told she could no longer give private lessons at the Astor.
It appears the breaking point finally came near the end of the Follies run. Goodwin and the Astor planned another youth production, Oliver, Jr. Goodwin says the Astor wanted a quick turnaround. To have the show ready in three months, they wanted auditions to begin before Follies wrapped.
The Astor disputes this, and says their staff were working with Goodwin on her schedule to make sure she wasn’t overwhelmed during Follies.
Goodwin said she told them that was a short timeframe to get kids ready for a show. But she agreed to do it. Unfortunately, she got sick. She says she asked Southcott to hold off on auditions until she was feeling better.
“I begged her not to do the callbacks because I wanted to be there for the kids. She did them without me, and she cast the show without me. And then she told me what the rehearsal schedule would be. Monday to Thursday, 3 o’clock to 5:30 every day for a full cast of kids, that is crazy and that is not how you direct children. And that is why I quit.”
Liverpool parent Crystal Doggett speaks at a public meeting on Monday evening about recent controversy surrounding the Astor Theatre in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)
John Simmonds, chairman of the Astor board, was also at the meeting on Monday and responded to Goodwin’s claims.
He said he and Goodwin had been talking about her role at the Astor in January and February.
“And the salary that you are receiving, we have it from every possible source that is very competitive in this field, in this area. So to say that we need to give you more money because you need it, unfortunately, as a businessman, as an employer, that shouldn’t enter into the equation. We did talk about down the road finding some way of bonusing you, profit-sharing, whatever. But that was still in discussion.”
Simmonds said Goodwin was also worried about a clause in her contract that she interpreted to be a non-compete clause. He said it was actually permission to work outside the theatre.
“You and a couple of your colleagues that you had spoken to said that’s a hard and fast non-compete. That’s not how we saw it. Those same people asked you to contact me or Jerri to discuss that clause. You failed to do that. I called you twice on that Friday afternoon when this whole thing blew up. You didn’t call me back. We’ve been asking to have a meeting with you since then.”
Simmonds said that most of the furor around the Astor happened when Goodwin resigned.
“The whole community rallied behind her and became totally outraged. We received 100 (Facebook) posts, emails, letters, at the Astor. We were totally overwhelmed and we couldn’t understand why. We’ve come to realize it’s support for Ashley and what she’s done. We appreciate all of that. We want her back. All of this rhetoric is not conducive to making that happen. If you want Ashley back and Ashley wants to come back, let’s talk sensibly about what the future holds and not what the past is.”
Others who attended the meeting said they just want both groups to come to terms and stop all the public bickering. Some criticized the group that called the meeting, saying that threatening to dissolve the board only inflamed tensions further.
The board and Goodwin’s supporters agreed to meet as a smaller group to hash out the concerns raised over the past month. The board pledged to hold a special meeting before the annual general meeting, which is scheduled for May 9.
“We’re looking forward to getting seven or eight from the different viewpoints in a room, talk about the issues and most importantly, moving forward, what do we do?”
Rebecca Smart was one of the organizers of Monday’s meeting. She said in an interview after the meeting that it was unfortunate it took a threat to dissolve the board to have her and others’ concerns heard.
“So I feel it was productive overall. Even though it was rough, but it was cleansing in a way because so much that’s been unaddressed and unspoken finally got out there.”
But it may take some time for the rifts around the Astor to heal. Southcott left the meeting early because she was upset by some of the accusations being hurled by one of the parents, who claimed they were threatened with legal action.
Simmonds said in an interview after the meeting that as somebody new to the community and as a new employee at the Astor, she has been unfairly targeted.
“She’s been under tremendous pressure because she recognizes from the get go that as much about Ashley it’s about her. People were out to trash her career.
“Give the lady a chance. We all make mistakes when we’re in a new job. I’m sure you have. I know I have. Let’s figure out what needs to be done to make things better in the future so everybody’s more comfortable.”
The soccer field at Liverpool Regional High School will be getting a makeover this year, with artificial turf and a new all-weather track. (Rick Conrad)
South Shore track and field athletes will be getting a year-round, all-weather track at Liverpool Regional High School.
The Queens County Track Society has decided to upgrade its original plan. Instead of an eight-lane gravel track, the school will now be getting a rubberized four- to six-lane surface.
It’s part of a $3-million upgrade to the school’s outdoor facilities, which also includes a new artificial turf soccer field.
Kristopher Snarby is president of the Queens County Track Society. He said Liverpool will have the only rubberized track and turf soccer field on the South Shore.
“That means it’ll be able to be used year-round. You don’t have to worry about thawing and bad weather and it’s a lot more accessible for people. So it’s definitely a nice change to the original plan.”
He said the change will add between $250,000 and $300,000 to the cost of the project. The original price tag was pegged at $2.75 million, with funding from the federal, provincial and municipal governments.
Snarby said the group decided the extra cost was worth it to have a year-round facility.
“One of the challenges with gravel, is that when you have the type of weather that we have, it means there’s a lot of upkeep to keep the track surface safe for people to train on. With the rubberized synthetic version, it’s going to be an attraction for athletes all over the South Shore to train on who are doing running events in track and field.”
The 400-metre track will now have four lanes, with an additional two on the straightaways for 100-metre and 110-metre hurdles races.
There are rubberized tracks at Acadia University in Wolfville, King’s-Edgehill School in Windsor, one in Clare and some in Halifax. The closest track to Queens County is a gravel facility at Park View Education Centre in Bridgewater.
Snarby says he’s confident the group can find the money to cover the extra expense.
“We’ve been really fortunate with the funding from the different levels of government. It is a bit more expensive but not crazy expensive like some other versions could have been, I guess.”
He said athletes from around the South Shore will benefit from the upgraded track. He said that because it will be fully accessible, a wider range of people, including para athletes and Special Olympics athletes, will be able to use it.
“It’s going to be a big game changer. It’ll be the only turf filed on the South Shore and also the only rubberized track on the south shore. We’re envisioning soccer teams coming here to use it. When younger athletes from the South Shore that go on to regionals and provincials, they’re always playing on turf fields now. And they’re also running on rubberized tracks. So it will give the South Shore region an advantage being able to train on the same type of track and field that they would be playing higher level games at.”
It will also give people in the community a safe, accessible surface to use.
“It’s going to be a great surface for people to get out in the fresh air and walk or run on a surface where they don’t have to worry about rolling their ankles and tripping. So it’s truly going to be a fully inclusive community space for people to use.”
Snarby said the group plans to launch some fundraising efforts in the next few weeks.
And he said they hope to have the track and soccer field completed by late fall, but he said it depends on contractor availability.
Abigail Smith, 16, of Brooklyn, stands with her coach Jason Scott, displaying one of the two bronze medals she won at the Elite National Championships in Edmonton on Jan. 13 and 14. (Photo via Abigail Smith)
By Rick Conrad
Abigail Smith credits a lot of people for her success so far and so young in national and international judo meets.
Her parents, her coaches, her teammates, her teachers.
But what really gets her into a competitive frame of mind is some good ol’ country music.
“A lot of people like to listen to pump-up music before a fight, but I like to listen to my country music to keep my calm and not thinking about judo before I do judo. That helps me to not think about what I have to do and then do it.”
So far, listening to the likes of Sam Barber and Luke Combs has helped keep the 16-year-old Brooklyn resident on the straight and narrow.
She won two bronze medals at a national judo meet in Edmonton last weekend, just before her 16th birthday. And in November, she captured silver and bronze at the Pan American Cup in Montreal, her first international competition.
The medals at the Elite National Judo Championships in Edmonton were especially sweet, she says, because it featured the top judo athletes from across the country.
“This is the biggest event in Canada. It’s a lot of work to get selected. So this year this was my favourite medal. Of course, I’m never happy with a bronze medal but this medal meant something to me so I was very happy with that. It means a lot.”
In Edmonton, she had her sights set on beating a rival judoka she hadn’t defeated yet. When they met in the U-18 division on Saturday, Smith lost to her. But on Sunday, in the senior division, Smith came back with a vengeance.
“She was my first fight and I had a very hard fight but I beat her, so winning that bronze medal meant a lot to me because I had been training specifically to beat that one person. So it was a big moment, we’d been working a while for that, me and my coach.”
Smith has been working at judo for 11 years. Based at Nova United Martial Arts in Halifax, she trains three to four days a week for up to two hours each session. That’s in addition to regular cardio and strength workouts.
She said her father Troy Smith first got her interested in the sport.
“My first coach worked with my dad and my dad was like, ‘I have a crazy daughter at home that needs to get some energy out,’ and he brought me to judo with his co-workers.”
Smith, who is in Grade 10 at Liverpool Regional High School, hasn’t looked back. She is ranked in the Judo Canada Top 10 in the U-18 division. Sport Nova Scotia has chosen her to be one of 12 Nova Scotia True Sport Athlete Ambassadors for 2024. True Sport emphasizes fair, inclusive and safe play.
She’ll be travelling to Denmark in early February to compete in the Danish Open.
And she just found out that she was selected to be part of Team Canada at the International Thuringia Cup Judo in Germany on March 23.
Competing nationally and internationally does cut into her school work, Smith says, but her teachers have been very supportive.
“I’m able to do what I’m doing, missing a lot of school because the teachers are very understanding and help me with my work to help me catch back up. So it’s nice to have teachers supporting me.”
She also credits the community support she’s received from the Region of Queens, Folk Law, Main and Mersey, Best Western Plus Liverpool and Sport Nova Scotia, as well as her coach Jason Scott and her teammates.
“People think judo is an individual sport and it is an individual sport, but it’s a huge team sport because you can’t get anywhere without your team, your training partners,” she says. “And having a good team you can rely on in sport and outside of sport is really important and that’s what’s helped me get so far in judo.”
She says she’s learned a lot of valuable lessons from the sport.
“That what you put in comes out. Whatever you want, it can happen. But you just have to put in that work and that extra effort and if you don’t, you’re not going to see the results you want, but if you do, then you’ll see results. And to be patient.”
With that frame of mind, she says she’s on track for her next big goal.
“I always say that I will be competing at Olympics and representing Canada at worlds one day so what I want to happen, I always say is going to happen. So hopefully, it will happen one day, Team Canada and the Olympics hopefully. We’re on track for that now.”
Minister Kim Masland announces funding for new athletic facilities at Liverpool Regional High. Photo Ed Halverson
New athletic facilities and a walking trail are coming to Liverpool Regional High School.
Public Works Minister and MLA for Queens Kim Masland announced a combined $2.75 million from three levels of government to replace the school’s existing soccer field with artificial turf and build a 400-metre-long gravel running track.
The new artificial turf field will resolve long-standing issues with drainage.
At Friday’s announcement Masland said Queens has a history of producing world-class athletes and construction of the new field will support future athletes by allowing them to train closer to home.
“The big thing for us is we want to make sure that we’re providing a facility that people can use in our community. We have amazing athletes. We talked a little bit today about Sarah Mitton and [in] the announcement we talk about our special Olympians,” said Masland. “Many of our athletes have to travel to Bridgewater to be able to adequately train, so this will be able to keep people home and also bring people here for events.”
LRHS Principal Todd Symes says the effort to replace the school field began about six or seven years ago.
“Students always went to other schools and were kind of jealous or envious of facilities in other schools had and then logistically, a lot of our students had to travel to participate, to have the same advantages that a lot of other areas already had,” said Symes. “So, the students themselves came up with an idea. They came up with the design to come up with a plan and they were adamant that they wanted something done. So, we had students that were with us for 3-4 years. They worked the whole time they were here to engage community members, to draw designs, to work with staff members, to initiate development of a non-profit society and they were the ones who started the dream.”
Symes says the current funding will build the track and field and students will be approaching the community to help raise another $200,000 to realize the entire vision, including a Mi’kmaw learning trail.
Masland says the tender to replace the track and field will be released later this fall and the new field is expected to be completed in 2024.
Damaged retaining wall on Shore Rd in Western Head. Photo Ed Halverson
Also announced Friday was $1 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments to protect two stretches of Shore Rd in Western Head which are dealing with erosion and flooding.
Work will include reinforcing an existing retaining wall and excavating existing rock and gravel to provide more protection against the effects of climate change.
Masland says work on that project will be performed by local Public Works staff beginning this fall and finishing in spring of 2024.
To hear the broadcast of this story click play below.
Liverpool Regional High School. Photo credit Ed Halverson
The annual Liverpool Regional High School scholarship fundraiser is marking 25 years of providing money for graduates to attend post-secondary school.
What started as a dinner and auction moved online during the pandemic and has been breaking donation records ever since.
Last year, organizers raised over $33,000, smashing through their $22,000 goal.
This year they’re challenging themselves and the community to come up with $35,000.
Fundraising committee member Pierre Losier says organizers considered returning to an in-person format but decided staying online offered benefits that couldn’t be ignored.
“What we found is with the online auction format it provides more than just a one-day event. It provides more opportunities for folks to participate in the auction,” said Losier. “We start in the first of May and go through the month into June until we’ve gone through the different lots of auction. So, it’s a different format but it increases our participation and as a result also increases the funding.”
The committee is composed of parents, teachers and most importantly, students.
“They are broken down in smaller groups with a mentor committee parent and they will go and canvas the community for donations of either items to be sold at auction or some financial donations to the committee,” said Losier.
Items up for auction are displayed as posts and bids can be made in the comments.
Losier says given the generosity of the community they could surpass the set goal of $35,000.
“Our community, year after year, just shows amazing support for this program and we’re confident that will continue on.”
Each year, about a third of the graduating class receive $1,000 awards from the scholarship fund to support their post-secondary schooling.
In the 25 years the auction has been running, over 400 students have received around $500,000 towards their continuing education from the LRHS Foundation.
Cleaning up after flooding at LRHS. Photo Bradley Judge, South Shore Regional Centre of Education
A teacher is being credited with preventing extensive damage to Liverpool Regional High School when they discovered flooding over March Break.
Around 6:30 Saturday night the teacher returned to school and noticed water on the floor.
They notified the custodian who traced the leak to a defective filter under the sink in the second-floor cooking lab.
Water had soaked the floor and flowed through the first-floor ceiling.
The custodian contacted the operations department at South Shore regional centre for education and it wasn’t long before custodians and staff from several other schools across Liverpool arrived to help clean up.
Within three hours the custodians had dried all the water and a restoration contractor was brought in to assess the extent of the damage.
In addition to many ceiling tiles coming down, ceilings in the change rooms and in the wood shop had to be taken down and will be replaced.
Flooding damaged tech ed shop and locker rooms at LRHS. Photo Bradley Judge South Shore Regional Centre of Education
Coordinator of Operations Bradley Judge says that work is underway and will continue into next week.
But any students or staff hoping for an extended break will be disappointed.
“No worries at all about reopening. It’ll be reopened safely after March Break. We still may have a few areas left to touch up. But talking to the admin people at the school we can work around it,” said Judge. “For example, if the tech ed shop isn’t 100 percent good to go they can use another area. So very slight inconvenience, luckily.”
Judge expects the school should be back to normal within a couple of weeks thanks to the quick actions of everyone involved.
“It’s very lucky. There was a lot of water and if that teacher hadn’t have walked in it would’ve been far worse than what it was,” said Judge. “And if our staff wouldn’t have cleaned it up as quickly and as efficiently as they did we would’ve been facing something different.”
