It is an exciting time at Widdifield Senior Secondary as the North Bay high school held a ceremony to celebrate alum Tyler Nicholson competing at the Olympics this week.
“This is an exciting time for us, it does not happen that often we get alumni actually going to the Olympics so this is really great news, not just for the school but the city as well,” said Lisa O’Kane, Widdifield Senior Secondary Principal.
See related: An Olympic sendoff, Wildcat style
See related: Board recommends to shut doors at Widdifield
It was a time to celebrate during a time of sadness as it was recently announced that the school has been slated to close as of the end of 2019.
O’Kane says everyone is putting on a brave face in the school, from the staff to the students.
“I have a T-Shirt that says ‘We are Widdifield until we are not,’ and that is what we are, we are loud and proud, Wildcat loud and proud and we move forward,” said O’Kane.
“We still say this is the best school to send your child to, for a foundation of education regardless of where they are going to go in the next few years. This is still a wonderful place to get educated by some amazing teachers, amazing program and an amazing school.”
O’Kane says at this point, they know very little about the transition.
“We are working on it and that is all we can say is we are working on it,” she said.
“We will make sure regardless of what happens all the kids are taken care of in all the schools. All the high schools will look different going into the future, right, all three.
“I suppose it will be a sad ending but if we did not care we would not be sad. We care a whole lot, so yes it is going to be sad and it is going to be a challenge to maintain that but we believe so much in what we do in this building, we just go through our daily work regardless and they will make sure they are okay because our staff is pretty incredible, along with all the staffs at all the schools. It will be fine.”
