Band Holds Grade 12 Grad After 10-Year Gap

Band Holds Grade 12 Grad After 10-Year Gap

Friday, June 12, 2009 at 14:02

The principal of the reserve school at Peepeekisis First Nation is rejoicing that the school has graduated its first Grade 12 class in 10 years.

John Koochicum says the school’s efforts to gradually re-introduce high school classes over the last three years, after dwindling enrollment forced the band to drop them, have paid off with the graduation of students Dakota Dustyhorn-Keewatin and Rachael Bellegarde.

Koochicum says it was wonderful to see the community’s support for the Grade 12 program — especially at last night’s graduation ceremony, when Bellegarde and Dustyhorn-Keewatin were each honoured with gifts of a blanket and an eagle feather.

Koochicum, who is a Peepeekisis band member himself, says he would have loved to have had the opportunity to graduate on-reserve.

He is proud that high school students from the File Hills bands are now being drawn back to attend the Peepeekisis school again.