Our source for these two stories was Mrs. Beth Barclay.  Beth was the custodian at CES for many years.  She also grew up and went to school here.  We plan to have her visit more than once!  During this visit, she shared details about the construction of the building we are currently in at Coalhurst Elementary.  We learned a lot of interesting things about how long it took, how changes had to made because of cost overruns and how things worked (or didn’t) when classes first started here in January of 1991.

Beth shared two other stories, as well.  One was about students who used to volunteer to assist her with various duties.  As a reward for  their service, students were treated to an was an underground tour of CES.  Beth routinely took students into the crawl space under the school which to our students now seems like a very magical and interesting place.  The students would write their names in chalk on the cement slabs.  She had to discontinue when new Occupational Health and Safety Guidelines were introduced.  We’ve written a letter to Palliser asking if someone with a confined space certificate is willing to go under and photograph this forbidden wonderland!

 The second story Beth shared will remain top secret until our book is published next year, at her request.  The reasons will become clear…next year!  A poem Beth has written about this event will be in our book and once the book is published, we’ll post details here.