Morning announcements at the Dunn

From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:

Ring! Ring! Class is now in session.

It is Oct. 30, 1957, and our city’s east end is officially opening its newest educational facility, named after one of its most influential businessmen, Sir James Dunn.

During his acceptance speech, John T. Stubbs, the first principal of what would become known as the Dunn, offered an empowering vision for the school and its students. Stubbs wanted graduates to not only gain a wealth of knowledge, but grow as free thinkers, and blaze a path for those to follow.

A large part of achieving Stubbs’ goal was to create a culture within the school community that allowed everyone to engage with the ideas, events, and the community itself. It was to be a school culture that welcomed new ideas, new participants, and fostered a strong work ethic, and promoted empowerment.

As many of us know, entering any new environment can come with its challenges, let alone being a new resident of a city and high school at the same time. Fast-forward to Nov. 28, 1969, when a student at Sir James Dunn investigated the experiences of five new Dunn students here in Sault Ste. Marie. As these students responded, it became apparent the Stubbs’ intended culture of the school was alive and well.

The newcomers to the Sir James Dunn community described the environment and culture as one that welcomed them, and one that expressed compassion towards those in the community.

One of the students interviewed acknowledged the quality of the resources they had at their disposal, as well as the abundance of extra-curricular activities in which to take part. This is something that all of the newcomers made use of, whether it be gymnastics, cheerleading, curling, music, or basketball. They all wanted to get the most of what the ‘Dunn’ community had to offer them and contribute to its culture.

While being a noticeable and significant part of building the culture at Sir James Dunn, athletics and extracurricular activities were not the only component.

The school culture required a level of hard work and dedication to meet the expectations of the faculty, and those the students placed upon themselves. In the first year of the school’s existence alone, it presented eighty-two honour certificates to pupils with an academic average of 75 and over.

Can you imagine the number of certificates that educators presented over the school’s 53 years of operation?

Sir James Dunn was the city’s first million-dollar construction of a school, and it was certainly equipped with the resources to accomplish the principal’s aim for the school. It boasted a potential for twenty classrooms, multiple science laboratories, home economics classrooms, business and marketing focused rooms, and multiple shops; amongst other career-based facilities.

Despite this, the school’s greatest strength to achieving Stubbs’ vision, however, was the culture that was created by its alumni; alumni that were invested in the betterment of themselves, their fellow classmates, and the school community itself.

Go Eagles Go!

Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.

Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here