The Glengarry School of Piping and Drumming has found a new home at Glengarry District High School in Alexandria, after being forced to move from its traditional base at Maxville Public School.
“We will be using GDHS in the future which has an ample supply of available classrooms and gym space for student and band instruction and practice,” says GSPD President Janet MacCrimmon. This is “not the ideal solution we were hoping for, but the GSPD can certainly continue with this arrangement,” she adds.
The GSPD had in late May issued a public appeal in its efforts to set up permanently at Maxville Public School. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the school has been forced to find alternate locations.
The Upper Canada District School Board, which owns the public school, said the issue is a lack of custodial staff over the entire district. The board replied that when staffing increased in the future, personnel would discuss the GSPD’s interest in “use of schools.”
The GSPD had been waiting since last fall for an answer from the UCDSB. “The present policy of charging for all spaces and covering janitors’ services after hours is crippling to music education associations. Now that a shortage of janitorial staff is reality, use of schools is even less possible, especially after the school day,” GSPD President Janet MacCrimmon wrote in a letter to the board dated October 30. “Historically, the music association directors have looked after the schools on evenings and weekends for lessons and band practices, accepting responsibility for entering and exiting independently. The small elementary schools are perfect locations for use by a single group. People entering the buildings are known, scheduled and have a purpose. Adults associated with the GSPD are quite capable of organizing and reorganizing classroom furniture, cleaning floors and monitoring washrooms,” she wrote.
