thanks to all who participated in the community planting day on august 23, 2008. extra special thanks go to tonie mori and her staff, and linda cumpson. the gardens and beds are beautiful, and provide a wonderful setting for the students, parents, teachers, and community at large. this is what community is all about. never under estimate the power of people who love their hometown and a true cornerstone of our community...NDSS! together we made it happen...let's put the niagara back in district! thanks to all...you are an inspiration to me. joanne hicks

I would like to personally invite any and all interested people to submit their constructive and creative ideas to the town council, "Friends of NDSS, and /or the DSBN, as far as our local high school is concerned. The DSBN trustees have made their decision to keep NDSS open, but with stipulations that include enrollment and timelines. What the DSBN appears not to have provided is support, and solutions to help with the dilemma of declining enrollment at our local high school, which they have in fact played a huge role in. Any feedback would be most welcome. Thank you so much. Joanne Hicks 905 468 7469

In deciding what to do now to increase enrollment at NDSS to 350 students for 2010, I think a number of things need to be addressed: 1) Programming - instead of a $1,000 scholarship as suggested by the Lord Mayor, what about donations going toward establishing the programming that is needed to attract students back to NDSS? For instance, donations could fund a computer science teacher or a football coach. 2) The attraction/popularity of Eden - what about providing faith/values based education? It doesn't necessarily have to be Mennonite. What about non-denominational faith or values based learning and emphasis in the school? How about uniforms? 3) Re-Launch of NDSS - a concerted marketing campaign must be done to emphasize the advantages of this school. I think the promotion of #1) & #2) above would help. Also, could NDSS consider the establishment of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program that is funded through private donations? This is a pre-university education program, is internationally recognized and is considered to be quite prestigious. This could be a unique attribute of NDSS and draw students to the school. Given the unique nature of Niagara-on-the-Lake, this type of program could be a very nice fit for the school. Status quo will not work - radical change is needed to attract students (and families) back to NDSS.

i just want to congratulate all who were involved in the rally on monday may 26th in support of NDSS. you should all be so proud of yourselves. many thanks to the kinsmen of NOTL who are so supportive of our school, and for cooking up and providing the food. thank you also to mc donalds for the pop. i can't help but wonder why some parents of elementary school-aged children would not want their children to have interaction with our high school students! NDSS kids are the best, and anyone could have seen that clearly last night. we have given the DSBN our community consensus, showed them fiscally that a new high school can be built, shared our vision of the campus concept, and demonstrated that demographically there will be more high school-aged youth in our town to support a secondary school . now it's time for the DSBN to do some work!!

I believe the maintaining of NDSS is coming down to political will. We have a strong council and a very strong mayor, their leadership on this issue is critical to keeping NDSS open and viable for the future. The future direction of NOTL does not depend on our seniors but that of our young. They will take this town to a higher level. With this in mind: we can,t tell our young that after gr8 you are kicked out; that you must represent another community...that your teen years accomplishments {there will be many} will be the pride of another community...that we in our collective wisdom have no place for youth in our community....that we in NOTL don,t value education in our community. Bus NDSS students out of town and in the near future we will be bussing our elementary students out as well. I don,t want the above negatives, implied to our teens and I am sure the citizens of NOTL don,t wish that either. The community, town council, DBSN, must come to a solution that keeps NDSS open and viable for the long term. As our mayor has stated the closure of NDSS is not an option, the future of our high school is a necessity, we must keep it open and the way to do that is have a K to 12 campus. One would be very cold hearted, to say to those teens pictured on the front page of last weeks Advance, we don,t want you or value you....you must leave this town but when you earn lots of money we might be interested in talking to you. The parties mentioned earlier in this email have a duty to show our teens that they matter, that their future is valued and respected. Peter King