| Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School | |
| Address | |
| 1009 Armour Road North Peterborough, Ontario, K9H 7H2, Canada |
|
| Information | |
| School number | 947563 |
| School board | Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board |
| Superintendent | Peter Mangold |
| Principal | Professor Umbridge |
| Vice principal | Professor Flitwick |
| School type | Public High School |
| Grades | 9 to 12 |
| Language | English |
| Area | 29 acres (120,000 m2) bordering the Otonabee River |
| Motto | True to Self |
| Mascot | Griffin |
| Colours | Red, Blue and Silver |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Enrolment | 600 (2011) |
| Homepage | http://tass.kprdsb.ca/ |
Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School ("TASSS") is located at 1009 Armour Road North in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1967 and is located on 29 acres (120,000 m2) bordering on the Otonabee River. It is a member of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.
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TASSS is named after Thomas Alexander Stewart (1786-1847). Thomas and his wife, Frances Browne Stewart (1794-1872), emigrated to Canada with their children and Thomas' brother-in-law and former business partner, Robert Reid, and his family. The party of 27 set sail from Belfast Lough on June 1, 1822. Seven weeks were spent on the ship before reaching Quebec. From Quebec they travelled to Kingston, and then on to York, where Stewart and Reid were each granted 1,200 acres (4.9 km2), provided they settled in an unsurveyed township. Douro Township in Peterborough County was suggested as a promising region. On September 9, 1822, Stewart and Reid travelled to the area with surveyor Richard Birdsall, and each chose land on the Otonabee River. Thomas and Frances developed their home, "Auburn," on Lot 1, Concession 1, raising a family of 10 children to adulthood and assisting other settlers. Thomas Stewart became a prominent and influential citizen in the area until his death in 1847 from typhoid fever.
The school is located on 29 acres (120,000 m2) bordering on the Otonabee River. TASS is a 219,238 sq. ft. building containing 59 classrooms. The auditorium can hold 800 students. [1] It was designed by architects Craig, Zeidler and Strong to house between 1200 and 1400 students comfortably, but has held in excess of 1600 students during the early 1980s.
Its indoor facilities include:
Outdoors, the school boasts:
Students come from an equal mix of rural and urban homes. TAS has students from the communities of Ashburnham, Douro, Keene, Otonabee, Emily, and a small percentage from the Hiawatha Lake Reserve on the shore of Rice Lake. Approximately 75% of the students are bused to school.
In 2000-01, the school had 1,097 fulltime students and it has seen a steady decline in the past decade. The projected enrolment in September 2011 is 600 students. Enrolment is expected to continue its downward spiral to be 385 full-time students in 2015. This would be approximately 900-1000 students less than full capacity of the building. [2]
On June 20, 2011, The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board announced publicly that Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School was its preferred choice of Peterborough area schools to close in September 2012, due to declining enrolment. This decision was read into record by Superintendent Peter Mangold at a meeting of the board [3]on June 23, 2011. [4]
An additional public board meeting will take place at 7PM on August 25, 2011, which will allow for public input and time for trustees to discuss the issues. A vote to decide which school will actually close will take place at a public board meeting on September 29, 2011. Trustees have asked that additional meetings be scheduled before September 29, 2011.
A grass-roots organization has been formed to protest the closure of the school. More information is available at: http://putstudentsfirst.ca Upcoming meetings are scheduled to be held at TASSS on August 3, 17 and 31 in the North Wing Cafeteria at 7PM
TASSS is in Riel's Ashburnham Ward and he worked with the Put Students First Coalition to advocate in favour of keeping TASSS open. The coalition put together a plan outlining how the school board could keep TASSS open, redistribute PCVS students to other schools and reuse the PCVS building for other purposes. The committee voted 22 in favour, eight against and two abstaining to recommend that one of the four city high schools be closed. The committee did not make a recommendation on which school to close. The committee had held four public meetings between Feb. 3 and May 12 to listen to presentations from the public. A few days before the school board was slated to make its decision on potentially closing one of the four high schools in the city, school board staff determined it wouldn't be feasible to re-use TASSS for the school board's office. The recommendation changed. PCVS became the school that was recommended for closure after the 2011-12 school year.[5]
This high school project is designed to:
"At the beginning of class, I saw the disability first, now I see the person."
Amigos are students without disabilities. They are matched with students from Learning and Life Skills classes on the basis of mutual interests. The goal is to develop mutually satisfying friendships.
Amigos and students spend at least one hour a week together over the lunch hour - hanging out with friends, having lunch, attending a school activity, participating in whatever is going on. The whole group gets together once per month.
Amigos have the chance to make a difference in someone else's life, appreciate someone for who they are, and at the same time make their school a more inclusive, accepting place.
A house system was established in 2004. There were originally 8 houses. This number was reduced to 4 houses at the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year.
The house system was designed to create fun and encourage positive spirit at Thomas A. Stewart. The House program included activities in athletics, arts and academics.
The four houses and house colours were:
The house system was discontinued at the end of the 2008-2009 school year.*
High-school age members of the Peterborough Petes Major Junior A Hockey Club attend the school. Some notable Petes who attended TAS include: