By Joel van der Veen

KENASTON — For the staff at Kenaston’s new Distance Learning Centre (DLC), perks of the job include the collaborative environment, modern workstations and state-of-the-art technology.

Not to mention the windows.

The second floor — where most of the staff is currently stationed — is flooded with natural light during the day, and also allows wide, panoramic views of winter Saskatchewan sunrises.

“That’s one wonderful thing about this building,” said Melanie Kerpan, a veteran educator who taught for more than 30 years in Kenaston starting in the mid-1970s, then joined the DLC staff in 2010 after a short-lived retirement.

Like the other staff members, Kerpan is enthused about the building itself — designed to foster collaboration between teachers through the use of open space and grouped workstations — and the potential it holds.

“They’ve designed it with foresight,” she said. “It’s going to be a good thing, for the town, the staff, the kids — the province, hopefully.”

After months of anticipation, construction on the 15,000-square foot facility finished in December at an estimated cost of $2.3 million.

Teachers, principals and support staff — who previously worked out of Kenaston School and the village’s curling rink — moved into the building just before Christmas. They had their first full day of work in the new DLC on Jan. 4.

Principal Jade Ballek said that 55 people are currently employed, either full-time or part-time, in the new building. She added that the number is constantly changing, and the facility has been designed to accommodate that continuous growth.

As of last week, the DLC has 670 full-time online students from across Saskatchewan, along with 500 students from Sun West School Division taking individual courses, and another 500 enrolled at other brick-and-mortar schools taking supplemental courses.

Over 100 different courses are offered through the DLC, including roughly 10 dual-credit courses — through which a student earns both a high school credit and a post-secondary credit.

As Ballek explained, the building’s collaborative purpose is evident from one end to the other, starting with the glass-panelled meeting room on the first floor.

Along with the reception area, the ground level holds a mixture of offices and meeting rooms, designed for flexibility of use.

For instance, the offices will be outfitted with Smart Boards so that teachers can use them for recording classes or “screencasting,” where anything written on the board is captured for later playback.

While the DLC’s high school-level classes consist entirely of online material, printed workbooks are still the norm for elementary classes.

A printing room is used to prepare and package this material, which is placed in an adjacent shipping room to be delivered wherever it’s needed.

While both floors include open workspaces for teaching staff, most of them are currently stationed on the second floor, grouped into professional learning teams (PLTs) based on their area of specialization.

Science and math teachers are grouped together, as are teachers of the humanities, which includes English language arts (ELA), history and psychology.

The open workspaces are framed using cubicles, allowing teachers to discuss their work together or quickly seek input from colleagues.

In addition to teaching classes, many of the staff are occupied with developing new course material or moving existing courses to the Moodle online platform.

Each station is outfitted with a standing desk that allows the user to adjust the height using an electronic control, easily moving between sitting and standing positions.

“The workstations are obviously very adaptable to how you want to work,” said Michelle Lee-Klassen, who joined the DLC staff in September and teaches two ELA courses.

Lee-Klassen had completed her internship in Outlook and said she wanted to come back to Sun West School Division if the opportunity came up.

Previously, she had subbed in Swift Current and Saskatoon, and also spent a year teaching in South Korea. Working in the DLC has allowed her to continue teaching in her area of expertise, she added.

“It’s really different than having your own classroom,” she said. “I’m happy that I’m able to keep teaching in my subject area.”

For the full story, please see the Jan. 18 edition of The Davidson Leader.

By Joel van der Veen

KENASTON — Despite the efforts of friends, family and police, there remained no word late last week on the whereabouts of Kenaston resident Sheree Fertuck.

The 51-year-old mother of three was last seen leaving the family farmyard east of Kenaston near Highway 15 on Dec. 7, around 1:30 p.m.

A semi truck used by Fertuck to haul gravel was located around 8 a.m. the following day at a gravel pit further east off of Highway 15.

Police announced Friday afternoon that, following several days of investigation, they were treating Fertuck’s disappearance as suspicious.

Her mother, Juliann Sorotski, said she had become concerned about her daughter and had found the truck on Tuesday morning, prior to filing a missing persons report with the police. She later  told CBC that the keys and Fertuck’s phone were still inside the truck when she found it.

“I was just hoping that I would find her, or find some kind of clue of where she might have been,” Sorotski told the Leader.

She also contacted friends and family, asking if they’d heard from Fertuck or seen any trace of her since Monday night.

John M. McJannet, a long-time neighbour and friend of the Sorotskis, said a group of seven went back to the gravel pit to see if they could find any evidence there.

“We drove down and had a quick look around,” he said, adding that police arrived later and asked the searchers to leave so the area could be contained. “The RCMP showed up and that was pretty much the end of that.”

Members of the Saskatoon RCMP detachment conducted a ground search of the area on Tuesday evening with assistance from the detachment’s police dog service.

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Also lending a hand with the investigation were members from the RCMP Major Crime Unit South, the Saskatoon RCMP General Investigation Section and the RCMP Historical Case Unit North.

“At this point, investigators cannot say if Sheree’s disappearance is suspicious,” read the release issued Wednesday. “It is certainly out of character for her to be out of contact with her family.”

In a statement issued Friday, police declared that the case was being treated as suspicious, given that their investigation had so far revealed that “Sheree was a person of habit and predictable behaviours.”

Flyers were posted in and around Kenaston. Additional units joined the investigation over the course of the week, and police issued a request to local residents to check their property, outbuildings and surrounding areas for any signs of unusual activity, including shoe or vehicle tracks.

Police specifically requested any information on sightings of Fertuck, her truck or suspicious activity in the area between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

Anyone who was travelling in the area or near the GPS co-ordinates North 51 degrees 2951.3, West 105 degrees 5505.5, and who may have taken video or photo images during that timeframe, is asked to contact police immediately.

Given the circumstances, Sorotski said she suspects strongly that Fertuck was abducted, adding, “I’m just hoping she can be found by somebody.”

Fertuck is the daughter of Juliann and the late Michael Sorotski. She is the mother of three children: Lucas, 22; Lauren, 19; and Lanna, 17.

She was living and working from the farm at the time of her disappearance. She and her husband Greg have been separated for around five years, her mother said last week.

Fertuck is described as around 5’4” in height and weighing 250 lbs., with greying brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing grey sweatpants, a grey sweater and white running shoes.

Anyone with relevant information is asked to contact the Saskatoon RCMP detachment at 306-975-5145 or Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).