Davidson Playschool students are entering the world of visual arts this spring thanks to a recently received $4,180 Creative Partnerships Explorations grant.

Terra Fazakas, grants representative with the Davidson Playschool Association, said they are putting the grant money towards bringing visual artist Derek Pho to the classroom in early May to help the 42 kids who attend the playschool to create a papier måché project. She said the two-, three- and four-year-old students would compile the hands-on piece into a larger-than-life local wildlife animal.

“Our focus is going to be on sustainability,” said Fazakas. “It’s got an environmental twist and it’ll be how the community interacts with your surroundings. It’ll be an animal that is local to Saskatchewan in our area that’s native in a local environment.”

Fazakas said the project is still in the development stage, but what would likely happen is the kids would create small shapes individually before combining them to make a bigger shape. She said the playschool, which is located in a room at Davidson School, would have the artist come in for two days to work with the students and give them directions on how to build the papier måché animal.

This is the first time the Davidson Playschool Association has been awarded a Creative Partnerships Explorations grant. The grant program’s mandate is to explore how the visual arts can enhance environmental stewardship within the classroom and funding partners include the Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture Inc., Saskatchewan Lotteries and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education.

“We hope to do more (Creative Partnerships Explorations projects) in the future,” said Fazakas. “This one is actually geared towards communities. We hope to be involving local businesses and local groups and volunteers from the town for recyclable donations to help build the structure.”

Communities in Bloom has entered into a non-competitive judging category that will grade the “overall health” of the entire community of Davidson.

Erin Gust, treasurer of Communities in Bloom, said judges from the provincial organization of Communities in Bloom would head to town this summer to rate the beauty of various attractions in Davidson. She said the community as a whole and all community groups would be rated in order to give Communities in Bloom a “benchmark” of what the beautification of the town is and what they would need to improve on.

“What (the judges) do is they provide you with an evaluation report and there is eight key criteria that they look at,” said Gust. “There is tidiness, tree and urban forest management, landscaped areas, floral design, turf and ground cover, environmental awareness, community involvement and natural and cultural heritage conservation.”

Gust said items such as the new planters that are located throughout the town, the new garbage cans on Washington Avenue, the parks, playground, library, landfill and the reverse osmosis water system are some of the things the provincial Communities in Bloom judges will be grading. She said Davidson would not be competing against other towns in the judging, but Communities in Bloom will still put in the extra effort once the snow melts to make sure everything is as beautiful as can be.

“We don’t have an exact plan set out yet, but we definitely would like our town to look as good as it can look,” she said. “We’ll be talking to businesses and talking to other community groups and just make sure everybody is on side.”

To read more please see the April 1 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Saskatchewan Party government and the opposition New Democratic Party differ on three key issues of concern to residents of this area in the recent 2013-2014 provincial budget announced last Wednesday at the legislature in Regina.

Greg Brkich, Sask. Party MLA for Arm River-Watrous, said the government has maintained their promise to hold the line on education property tax rates, increased crop insurance coverage to record levels and improved rural physician recruitment and retention by investing more funds to boost physician numbers in this province.

Trent Wotherspoon, NDP MLA for Regina Rosemont and opposition finance critic, said the vast majority of people across this province will actually see their property tax bills increase this year, the growth in insurance coverage will be offset with cuts in other agriculture areas and initiatives announced in the budget actually do not confront the challenge presented to rural communities in physician recruitment and retention.

The government announced in their budget that to offset the 67 per cent increase in property values in the province over the past four years, they are lowering the education property tax rates on all classes of property in order to keep re-assessment revenue neutral. The new education mill rates are 2.67 mills for agricultural land, 5.03 mills for residential property and 8.28 mills for commercial property.

Brkich said holding the line on education property tax rates is a huge benefit to town and village property owners as well as farmers facing a reassessment this year.

“We’ve tried to make it revenue neutral,” said Brkich. “It may not be 100 per cent revenue neutral, because of some properties. Their assessment is way above normal. They will probably have to pay a bit more tax, but there will be some that went down with their assessment. The top of the assessment is a little below normal, but basically it’ll be revenue neutral.”

Wotherspoon said the government is just keeping their commitment with this promise, but “pretending somehow” that this represents big savings for Saskatchewan residents is not true. He said with a growing population and resources that are in demand, the government is failing to support communities where it counts.

“In fact, the property tax increase is going to be significant and in many ways it is going to be significant because this government is failing to provide the infrastructure needs required for our growing communities,” said Wotherspoon.

To read more please see the March 25 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Loreburn Central School staff and students want to be free of the four walls that surround them and they need your help to escape.

The Kindergarten to Grade 12 school has advanced into the last 10 finalists of the Majesta Trees of Knowledge competition that would award them $20,000 towards building an outdoor classroom at the school if they win. They need people’s votes at majestatreesofknowledge.ca from now to April 26 to earn them that coveted outdoor learning paradise.

“It would bring a new environment to learning for us,” said LCS Grade 11 student Gillian Wankel, 17. “We’re never really learning outside. We’re always stuck in a classroom on a computer or whatever, so if we’re outside learning on a chalkboard that might bring a new type of learning to us.”

The new classroom the school proposes to build is an open concept space located in the 90-degree corner of the L-shaped school and will include shrubs, rocks, paths, trees, flowerbeds and a gazebo. The classroom would be built by LCS students and outside contractors and be ready for learning for October 2013 if they win the competition.

Judy Brown, principal of Loreburn Central School, said staff at the school has been discussing the issue of building an outdoor classroom for years as a way to get kids into a friendlier atmosphere. She said the school has already raised $7,500 towards building the space and if they win the $20,000 competition that would put them over the top.

“This is something we’d really like in our community,” said Brown. “It’s more relaxing and the students can focus. It’ll get them out of the building to enjoy the outdoors and fresh air.”

The 104 students at the school put forward an essay, written by Grade 10 student Paige Travers, and a youtube video, coordinated by Grade 12 pupil Jordyn Hauberg, along with a report on their timeline for building and maintaining the classroom, their budget and the wider involvement of the community for the project to Majesta in early January to enter the contest. They were informed they made it to the final 10 by the end of that month and have been coming up with ways to get out the vote ever since.

LCS Grade 9 student Brock Archibald, 15, said an outdoor classroom would give the students more variety in their learning, which could help them improve their grades.

“Breathing in the fresh air might clear the mind a bit,” said Brock.

As an added incentive, a voter at majestatreesofknowledge.ca for the winning classroom is eligible for a chance to win a $10,000 cash prize. People can vote once daily in the outdoor classroom competition and LCS is hoping for your support.

The Roman Catholic Church elected a new pontiff last Wednesday in Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, who took the name Pope Francis, but Reverend Joseph Gyim-Austin believes the direction of the Church will remain the same.

“I don’t think he is going to bring any new thing, but only help us to embrace in our own faith what we believe, what we have always believed, what we stand for and what the church is always ready to give,” said Gyim-Austin, pastor of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Parish (Davidson), Holy Redeemer (Elbow), St. Andrew’s (Kenaston) and Immaculate Heart of Mary (Outlook).

Gyim-Austin said he does not know much about the man, but that would soon change through information coming through the diocese. He said the selection of the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, does give insight into his position on Christ and the Church.

“Francis wants to be a humble person,” he said. “It is the Church of Christ and if you want to follow Christ then you must also be ready to live that humble life and that hopefully will resonate in his own life as well as in the entire church.”

Roman Catholic churchgoers have been praying for a new pope since Pope Benedict XVI stepped down Feb. 28 citing a lack of strength. This was the first resignation of a sitting pope in over 600 years.

Gyim-Austin said the resignation by Benedict XVI was hard to take at first, but he realized it was the right move for the Church as time went on. He said Benedict XVI was a good leader during his eight years as head of the Church and that is evident by his decision to resign when he felt he could no longer be an effective pastor.

“He did it for the sake of the Church,” he said. “When you know that you don’t have the strength anymore, and at his age also, he felt it was necessary that somebody could come up to continue the work.”

The Church is “rejoicing” now that a successor has been chosen, said Gyim-Austin, but there are no decisions made as of yet to how to mark the election of the new head of the Church.

“The diocese will give direction towards the celebration,” he said. “In our own local churches at our Eucharist celebrations we will mention (Pope Francis) and then the feeling will come naturally.”

School safety is on everyone’s minds after recent school shooting tragedies in the United States.

In an effort to put people at ease, schools in Davidson and Kenaston are letting students, staff and parents know they would be conducting drills in the near future at the schools in the event of a potential lockdown situation. Craik School has already been conducting these drills for several years now.

Jason Low, principal of Davidson School, said they have conducted perimeter (external doors locked) and interior (classroom doors locked) drills in the past, but more testing is needed with them. He said these drills are just preventive and they want to have some practice and a plan in place in case of a security situation.

“It’s a hot topic right now because of all those things (in the States),” said Low. “We’re just trying to do our part to stay on top of things and have our procedures in place and make sure that we’re practised and calm.”

Low said school staff has begun discussions at their meetings to determine their role and ways to keep students informed and at ease during a lockdown situation. He said one thing that staff would like to impress upon students is to put away their cell phones during a lockdown situation so as not to spread panic in the community and keep phone lines from being blocked for emergency services.

“It’s a learning curve for us too as we get going,” he said. “We’re trying to figure things out on how we can keep kids informed and calm and work with them.”

Kenaston School principal Ryan Johnson said they have formed a crisis team made up of three teachers and one office staff member and is meeting this week to plan their lockdown drill. He said this drill would be their first of the year, but they have conducted them at the school in the past.

“We’re going to go through the list of things that need to happen, such as the script that will be said over the intercom,” said Johnson about what will be discussed among the crisis team this week. “With the first one, we are going to let parents, community (members), staff and students know about it, so they will be aware about what they should be doing and it’s not a stressful situation.

“Then the next one, if we have one before the end of the year, will probably be a regular unannounced drill for practice purposes.”

To read more please see the March 18 print edition of The Davidson Leader.