our communities for the time being.

In 1977, Mr. Tom Wilkinson, principal of Stella Maris School called upon the school communities of St. Ann's and St. Augustine's to join with Stella Maris in forming the North Shore Planning Committee. He had close contact with the parents of St. Ann's because their children attended senior high school at Stella Maris. 1977 was the last year for senior high school at Stella Maris. In 1978—79, Stella Maris housed grades one to nine. Mr. Wilkinson foresaw the need to have a committee in place to speak for the concerns of the three schools in the years that lay ahead. In 1977, the North Shore Planning Committee was made up of the Home and School representatives from the three North Shore schools, the principals and the local trustees.

In the next few years, changes began to take place at St. Ann's School.~ In 1979—80, there was administrative consolidation in the North Shore Schools. Mr. Wilkinson took over principalship of the three schools, with vice—principals being assigned at each school. The enroll- ment of St. Ann's for 1980 was 93 students. In 1981-82, St. Ann's School housed Grades 1 to 7, with Grade 8 students going to Stella Maris. This caused a remarkable drop in enrollment with only 62 enrolled in 1982. Thereafter, the enrollments of St. Ann's ranged between 55 and 34, which was the enrollment in 1990. In 1982-83, St. Ann's housed Grades 1 to 6.

The North Shore Planning Committee in 1978 put forth their con- cern to the Unit III School Board that it would be in the best interests of their children that they would be best served by the construction of one building which would accommodate all the children of the three schools. However, the North Shore Planning Committee quite willingly relin- guished their standing on the priority list on a number of occasions to allow other necessary building priorities to come first. The Planning Committee didn't feel the need to be at the top of the list until around 1987-88 because the schools could offer quality education until about that time. In 1979, the North Shore schools were confirmed as number three on the construction priority list of Unit III. In 1984, the Planning Committee was shocked and disappointed to see that they had dropped to tenth place; in 1986 they were in sixth place; and in 1987 they had fallen to seventh place on the priority list. This prompted the Committee to approach the Unit 111 Board asking them to honor their commitments to the people of the three communities of the North Shore. After showing much flexibility and good faith towards the Board over the last number

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