Port Dover Composite School | |
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Address | |
Box 729, 713 St. George Street Port Dover, Ontario, N0A 1N0 Canada |
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Coordinates | 42°47′28″N 80°12′43″W / 42.791039°N 80.211933°WCoordinates: 42°47′28″N 80°12′43″W / 42.791039°N 80.211933°W |
Information | |
Motto | Lux Ex Umbra (Light In Darkness) |
Religious affiliation(s) | Secular |
Founded | 1962 |
School board | Grand Erie District School Board |
School number | 935964 |
Principal | Marc Dulmage |
Grades | 7–8, 9–12 (formerly 9–13) |
Enrollment | 44 (2012) |
Language | English |
Area | Port Dover and Area |
Colour(s) | Green and White |
Team name | Lakers |
Website | granderie |
Port Dover Composite School (PDCS) was a public middle and high school located in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada. Shortly after closure, PDCS was converted into an elementary school called Lakewood Public School in an attempt to attract the children of New Canadians to the area. Students here typically lived south of Simcoe, northeast of Turkey Point and southwest of Jarvis.
PDCS had a well established theatre arts program which allowed students to take drama in Grades 9 and 10, and then go on to the unique Theatre Co-op Program. This program ran at the community's Lighthouse Festival Theatre and each year culminated in a class-directed and produced production. In 2011, the class performed the play Sticks and Stones. In addition to its drama classes, the school has a long tradition of excellence at the prestigious Sears Drama Festival. In 2010, the school's production of The Insanity of Mary Girard was one of three plays from the district festival at the Lighthouse Theatre to go on to the regional festival in Hamilton. In 2011 the school's play The Chronicles of Jane, Book Seven was also selected to represent the district at the regional festival, again held in Hamilton.
Port Dover Composite School was originally given the option of remaining open until September 2013; although it has been officially declared that this school will be closed by January 31, 2013. Students who have not already transferred to Simcoe Composite School had to become permanent students there for the duration of their high school "career." Several small groups of Port Dover Composite School students had taken small tours around the Simcoe Composite School campus on November 29, 2012 in order to start the transition from into a high school outside their own community.
Had the traditional Norfolk County high school boundaries been strictly enforced as it been in the past, the students would have filled 78% of the school's total capacity. The worst possible outcome for PDCS coming into the 2012-13 school year was to have classes until the end of January 2013 with each class having less than six students attending, before closing the high school permanently. This has already been achieved despite adding wi-fi Internet access and Smart Boards in an attempt to lure more teenagers into attending PDCS. Most of the students who have attended Port Dover Composite School in the previous (2011–12) school year have left in a sudden "exodus" to attend Simcoe Composite School in the search of better school programs. Only 14 teachers have remained at the high school as of the beginning of the 2012-13 school year.