Ankmotsgdcaaz Seck: DEPT. OF PROVNCIAL SECRETARY Province of ROOM 137— PHONE WH 6-7439 LEGISLATIVE BUILDING February 18, 1966. Dee WOHNOPEG MAM070[3A

FRONTIER COURGIATE HAS NORTHERN COLOR Frontier Collegiate Institute, Manitoba's first residential school for nor- 141-lidents, was officially opened Wednesday by education minister Hon. George Johnson at a ceremony at Cranberry Portage. The ceremony, followed by a tour of the school complex, was attended by locai dignitaries, about 25 members of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly, a press group from Winnipeg, and the students themselves. The school, created out of a former RCAF radar base, has an enrolment of 150 resident students and 50 day students from the nearby town. The resident students come from widely separated and sparsely populated centres throughout the north. The school complex is an integral part of established last summer to equalize educational opportunities for students in remote northern areas where it is not practical to build and operate one-room high schools. The division, described by Dr. Johnson as one of the largest in the world, encompasses a school population of some3,000 pupils located in 16 isolated school districts and 27 undeveloped settlements. It serves an area of about 166,000 square miles, an area ten times the size of the original postage stamp province of Manitoba. The division is administered from Dauphin by official trustee K.R. Jasper. "Every child in the new division is entitled to attend Frontier Collegiate without payment of a fee, and students who need financial help to cover the cost of room and board are being looked after through bursary assistance," Dr. Johnson said. The school has a staff of 12 academic teachers directed by principal John Milner. It, offers both the new general high school course and the university en- trance program. It contains bright, modern classrooms with facilities for physics and chemistry. Options such as home economics, industrial arts and business educa- tion are provided in special facilities. The resident students are housedin comfortable dormitories supervised by adult staff members. An excellent recreation program features volley-ball, basketball, badminton, hockey and skating. Many students also belong to an outside curling club. School dances and informal "record-hops" are held in the attractive dining hall and recreation building, and a school band has been formed with three guitars, drums, and accordian. The health of the students is supervised by Dr. M. Panikkar of the northern health unit, , and a registered nurse'is on duty and on call in the campus infirmary. Dr. Johnson described the purpose of the school as that of helping to providL a reservoir of trained manpower of northern citizens to meet the economic problems and opportunities of northern Manitoba. -more- -2- FRONTIER COLLEGIATE No one can face the challenges of our north with more courage and resolution with more understanding and affection than those of our people who were born here," the minister said. Some of the students want to go on to university, nursing and teaching, and a good number of them will train for future jobs at the Northern Vocational Centre currently under construction at .

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