During May and June 2020, the Board will provide several Kingston Transit Blitz Days to allow Grade 8 students who will attend the new Kingston Secondary School to obtain their free Kingston Transit passes.

Incoming Grade 9 students from J.G. Simcoe PS, Molly Brant ES, Rideau Heights PS, Central PS and Sydenham PS will receive their pass as well as maps and an orientation to help with the transition to KSS. There will also be some added support for incoming Grade 7s to Module Vanier from Polson Park PS, Sir John A. Macdonald PS and Rideau PS.

Existing KCVI students will be able to renew their pass for the 2020-2021 school year.

The transit passes will be key for students who live within 3.2 km of the new school and are not eligible for school bus transportation. School bus transportation is available to students currently attending KCVI or those who will attend KSS for special programming.

For information on school bus eligibility to KSS, please visit Tri-Board Student Transportation. Families who are eligible need to complete a Tri-Board busing application. This can be done on the Tri-Board website, or in person at KCVI's Student Services. If you have any questions about busing to the new school, please call KCVI.

Students who don't get a pass during the blitz days can still get a pass in the fall at the beginning of the new school year.

By Julia McKay, Kingston Whig-Standard

The Legacy Project is preserving the combined history of Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute and Queen Elizabeth Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

The main goal of the project is “to uncover and document the histories of the first two public high schools in Kingston through their document and artifact collections.”

As of the Limestone District School Board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 12, the project had created a committee, hired two museum professionals (Emily Welch and Jessa Brown) by securing grants from the Young Canada Works Building Careers in Heritage, the KCVI Bicentennial Fund and the City of Kingston Heritage Fund, and almost completed a full inventory of school items.

Members of the Legacy Project committee are KC teacher librarian Joanne Whitfield, and retired teachers Kevin Reed, Tim Orpin and Chris VanLuven, with support from KC principal Talya McKenna and superintendent of education Krishna Burra.

“(We’ve discovered a) treasure trove of weird and wonderful,” Whitfield said.

Along with letters, photos and other documents, the archive will include tools, flags, trophies, scientific objects.

As well, it will help set up specific exhibits within the new Kingston Secondary School, looking at things like the school’s athletics, arts, the journey from Kingston Collegiate and Queen Elizabeth Collegiate to becoming Kingston Secondary School and what happened at the schools during wartime.

The archive and memorabilia will be stored in both hard and digital formats at the new Kingston Secondary School.

“(The project aims) to create exhibit spaces in our new school and digitally that help our students and the public appreciate the histories of these two schools and their contributions to Kingston, Ontario and Canada,” Whitfield said.

Another goal of the project is “to ensure that whatever is kept will be stored or displayed in accordance with conservation best practices” as well as “disperse some of this collection in accordance with current museum and archive standards.”

“Strong opinions exist in the community about which items, if any, should transition to Kingston Secondary School,” Burra stated in a report to the board. “A fine balance exists between honouring the important history of both KCVI and QECVI, while also providing the opportunity for KSS to create its own history. In addition, storage space is very limited at KSS, which prevents the movement of all historical items to the new school. A historical document cabinet and four ‘legacy’ panels have been purchased to display the history of both predecessor buildings at KSS. In addition, some display cabinets and spaces will be made available to showcase a limited number of items.”

Examples of the digital inventory are The Milton Borenko Collection and school yearbooks available to see online. According to the presentation, the oldest item currently in the inventory is a letter, dated from 1851, from a student to his master, D.A. Givens, apologizing for his misbehaviour.

Kingston Secondary School is scheduled to open its doors to students this fall, for the start of the 2020-21 school year.

Anyone with an item of significance can contact the archivist at Kingston Collegiate via email to discuss the item. For more information, visit the legacy website.

We thank the Kingston Whig-Standard for granting us permission to reproduce this article.

Before students even begin post-secondary, and well before student assistances comes in, there are almost $700 in fees, which often determine whether or not a student can attend.

To ensure that all of our eligible students have access to a post-secondary dream, we have created the KSS Launch Fund to support all students in the next phase of their education.

Consider making a donation to help fund:

• School Supplies $50
• College Application $95
• University Application $150
• Textbooks $250
• Residence Deposit $500
• Tuition Deposit $500
• An amount of your choice

Please call 613.544.4811 if you have any questions, or for information on how to access the fund.