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One high school serves the whole community
ughie Butt, 32, principal of
H Pasadena Aca demy
pres ides over 450 students in
Grades 4 to 12, and 24 staff
members. Anative of Deer Lake,
he taught English at Sop's Arm,
White Bay, until the opening of
the Academy in 1981 when he
assumed the role of principal.
"Up until 1981 Pasadena had no
high school. Students went to
Grade 8 here, after which they
were bused to Deer Lake. The
Roman Catholic students went to
Xavier High School, the Integrated
students to Elwood. In
September 1981, when this school
opened, it took care of the Integrated
high school students but
the Roman Catholicscontinued at
Deer Lake. Deer Lake Integrated
School Board and the Upper 51.
Barbe Roman Catholic School
Board then worked out a joint
service agreement. An extension
was put on this building, certain
classes and shops were added.
and by September 1982all the
local Roman Catholic high school
students came here . So we have
one high school for the whole
community .
"I think it has worked quite
well," says Hughie. "Of cours e,
every new system has growing
pains , but we would have had
those with or without the joint
service agreement."
One difficulty facing Roman
Catholic students is the adjustment
to changing schools after
Principal Hughie Bun
Gra de 9. The integrated students
remain in the same school from
Grade 4 to 12 and are famil iar
with the teache rs and curriculum
. But students coming in
may be used to different instructional
tactics or had different
parts of the curriculum emphasized.
Fortunately, the incoming
students usually manage
to adjust to th e changes.
Pasadena Academy stresses
academic achievement.
" We have a grea t variance in
ability among students including
a number who are extremely
gifted. For some reason it's different
from other communities
where you tend to have mostly
average students . Perhaps it's
because we have a lot of protes-
Pasadena Academy
DeCKS AWASH - 51
sional families Jivingin the community.
We have only ISO high
school students and that makes it
difficult to put on separate
classes for academic and general
studen ts. Often we will get 60
students who opt for a course .
Fifty will want to go academic,
ten will want to go general. We
can't put 50in one class and 10in
the other , so we end up with two
academic classes of 30. It's tough
on those whoare not academical­
Iy strong ,"
It's also tough on teachers trying
to help students who display
a wide range of abilities. If the
teacher compromises and aims
at the middle sector of the class,
students at the top and the bottom
will inevitably be frustrated.
Despite this, the school has had
some notable academic
achievements.
"Last year Melissa Smith won
the M.G. Smith Memorial
Scholarship, a Bowater scholarship
worth $8,000. It's only given
every four years. There were 51
applicants between here and
Gander and Melissa was the
unanimous choice. We also had
Lori-Lynn Bonnell win the Electoral
Scholarship for Humber
Valley which is based on the
highest examination marks. We
received a 97% pass rate in the
Grade 12 exams and we have
around 28 per cent honors
students."
It's a positive reflection of the