St. Joseph's High School (Barrie)

Saint Joseph's Catholic High School is located in Barrie, Ontario, Canada.

Recent construction

In 2001, the school began construction of a new, two-story wing to accommodate the growing influx of students. The construction did not complete soon enough, however, and the school was soon faced with the problem of a ballooning student population in an inadequate facility. During the construction, overflow classes were relocated to portable classrooms, as well as bussed to a nearby "teaching annex", located on Bell Farm Road, approximately ten minutes from the school. Students were asked to share lockers to accommodate the space shortage. The school ran lunch periods in shifts throughout the day, as the cafeteria was ill-equipped to hold even half of its students. The wing opened in September 2003, complete with new music and art rooms, three new computer labs, a recording and green-screen studio, an extension on the existing cafeteria, a darkroom, as well as many new classrooms and hundreds of additional lockers.

The "Sandal Scandal"

In spring 2005, approximately 50 students were sent to the office for dressing inappropriately on a casual dress, or "civvies", day. Their unruly behaviour in the hall outside the main office led the vice-principals to tell them to quiet down or go outside. Misunderstanding, they thought they were told to leave because of their footwear, and so they walked out the front doors of the school. A few then re-entered the school through other doors and encouraged their friends to join them outside. As it was a warm spring day, many did, and soon approximately 100 students gathered around the front steps. In their attempts to make a media event of the situation, a few students contacted the local news outlets. All but one declined to report on the story, and the one that did displayed photographs of students holding hastily made signs reading "Jesus wore sandals; why can't we?" A small number of agitated parents contacted the school to find out what was going on, and soon the "protest" fizzled. The students returned to classes and were merely issued warning letters about appropriate dress. Subsequent retellings, including a humorous valedictory address at the June graduation ceremony, distorted and magnified the story into a mass protest by hundreds of students.

Theatre Arts program

After a lengthy hiatus, the St. Joe's Drama Club re-formed in 2003. The student group has since undertaken many ambitious projects, including a full-length musical, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, several variety shows, and an annual independent rock show known as "Battle of the Bands". The St. Joe's Drama Club has won several awards from the Sears Drama festival for ensemble acting, songwriting, and directing. Past productions are as follows:

• Zephyr (2003/2004). The script, which was written in workshops by the cast, was a nihistic exploration of the element of air. The show garnered three Awards of Excellence at the Sears Drama Festival; one for ensemble acting; one for the musical composition of actress Amy Friel; and one for the performance of young actress Kimiko Saso.^[1]
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (2004/2005). The script was adapted into a 1920's New York setting by now-alumnus Colin Fallowfield, who also directed the production. Fallowfield won an Award of Excellence for his direction.
• Little Shop of Horrors (2005/2006). The school's production of the infamous Menken/Ashman musical was directed by Ashleigh Jeffrey. It featured memorable performances by Patrick Montgomery, Katie Bekking, Austin Vair, Curtis Steeves, and Laurel Dault
• On the Line (2009/2010). The school's production a student written play, written by Casandra Miller that raised over 300 dollars for Kids Help Phone services in Barrie.
• "The Last Three Weeks" (2010/2011). A school production, continuing the anti-bullying campaign, written by Avery Hellas, that portrayed a realistic view of a typical high school. Featuring the talent of grade 10-12 students directed by Ashleigh Jeffery-Price and co-directed by Ryan Connolly.

Prior to the "hiatus", St. Joe's hosted the Sears Ontario Drama Festival in 1998, in which the top 15 schools performed at Georgian College Theatre, the first time the showcase event was held outside Toronto. During workshops and social events at the school irony played a hand when a teacher pulled the plug on the music during an outdoor BBQ.

St. Josephs has begun production for a new play this year. Written and Directed by Mr. Patrick Conroy, an English, Writers Craft and Film Studies teacher. The play is set to be entered in the 2012 Sears Drama Festival. This will be the schools first non-drama department run play since Little Shop of Horrors. It is titled The Case of the Mashed Potato, A vegetable murder mystery. Featuring Potato, Tomato, Rapini, and Jalapeño.

Music Program

St. Joseph's Catholic High School is home to the St. Joe's Junior and Senior bands. They perform annually at a music competition in Collingwood and have previously received a rank of gold at the national competition in Ottawa. They have also traveled to Chicago, New York and Boston. On April 3, 2009, the St. Joe's music department held its very first 12 Hour Music Marathon, this included performances by several music classes, Junior and Senior Band, several musical ensembles, and several rock bands formed by students.

Communications Technology

Since the Regional Communications Technology Contest began again in 2005, St. Joseph's Catholic High School has competed twice. St. Joseph's hosted the event in 2005, winning first place overall that year. In 2006, the school placed second. St. Joseph's did not compete the following year, as a teaching exchange left the Communications Technology team without a staff sponsor and organizer.

St.Joe's Teams

St. Joe's rowing team

A relatively new addition to the co-curricular sports offered at St. Joseph's, the Rowing Team formed in 2005 and met with considerable positive response from the student body. Rowing is still a relatively new sport among Barrie high schools. Only five high schools in Barrie, St. Joseph's, Nouvelle Alliance, Innisdale , Barrie North , and St.Joan of Arc have rowing teams, with about 50 competitors between them.

In 2007 the team celebrated its first appearance in the CSSRA Finals. Trevor Neelin and Nick Sarchuk placed 5th overall against teams from across Canada and the northern United States, in the Senior Boys Heavy Pair event.

The first St. Joe's team to win a race at Schoolboy was the Junior Women's Four consisting of Michelle Hayano as the coxie, and Melissa McKinnon, Courtney Horne, Sarah McGarry, and Meggie Letman in seats four through one, respectively. They qualified for semi-finals with the best time ever from a St. Joe's women's four team. They came in 5th out of 6 teams in the semi-finals after a faulty start. ^[2]

Major Events

In January 2011 the school was shut down for 2 & 1/2 days due to an unknown substance. The students were evacuated into nearby Monsignor Clair Catholic Elementary School and École Frère-André Elementary School. A total of 29 students were sent to hospital, then were released shortly after. The school was cleaned by a industrial hygienist company and the tests were inconclusive as to what chemical/substance was released. The person(s) was never found that might have released the substance, although it was suspected to be a student's doing trying to avoid exams.[4]

Deaths

Between the years of 2006-2009, there were four deaths. Two were suicide and two were accidents.

Alumni

• Notable St. Joe's alumni include supermodel Jessica Stam

References

1. ^ Nathalie Schramm, Maloree Kubica (Eds.), St. Joe's People: 2004 (pp. 100-101) Barrie: St. Joseph's Catholic High School.
2. ^ The Barrie Examiner - Ontario, CA

1. Nathalie Schramm, Maloree Kubica (Eds.), St. Joe's People: 2004 (pp. 100–101) Barrie: St. Joseph's Catholic High School.

2. http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=527706&catname=Sports&classif=

3. http://currwww.smcdsb.on.ca/SJO/athletics.htm

4. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/926190--barrie-high-school-evacuated-after-reports-of-suspicious-chemical

External links

• St. Joseph's High School