Kelly Road Secondary School has a varied history, both in grades offered and catchment area.
The former elementary/junior high school became strictly a junior high in 1967. The construction of the pulp mills in the mid 1960s had caused a population boom in the Hart region as it did in the rest
of Prince George. From 1968 to 1972, the overflow was housed in the Annex and North Nechako Road students were switched to the Duchess Park Secondary catchment area. By 1975, Grade 11 was added to the school and Grade 12 the following year, completing the transition to a secondary school.
To accommodate these additional students, Kelly Road had to go on shift for the 1975-1976 year. Grade 11s and bus students had the morning shift and all others were on the afternoon shift. New construction and renovations were to be finished by September 1976 but this deadline was not met due to construction problems. It was decided to put all of Kelly Road on shift with Duchess Park for the fall. The reopening of the school took place on January 3, 1977 except for the gym and auto shop, which were delayed to January 24th. The first graduation ceremony took place in May of that year.
By the early 1990s, with the building of more subdivisions in the Hart area,
the number of students at Kelly Road again exceeded its capacity. In 1993-94, a block of six new classrooms was built along with a new office area. After this block was finished, renovations were begun that encompassed the computer, art, counselling and special education areas as well as an acoustic ceiling for the band room. However, even these improvements were not enough to deal with the burgeoning student population. In September 1994, five portables had to be brought in because the school was still 166 students over its capacity. A process was begun to determine what course to take to address this problem. In 1996 the "Kelly Road Zone Accommodation Task Force Report" recommended that a Grade 6 - 8 junior middle school be built to take the pressure off Kelly Road Secondary. Heather Park
Middle School was opened in 2000, leaving Kelly Road with grades 9-12, and operated until June 2010.
As district enrollment declined, the Grade 8 students were brought back to Kelly Road and Heather Park middle school became an elementary school.
In the spring of 2017, the provincial government gave School District 57 permission to build a $44.3 million replacement for Kelly Road secondary. The new school is to hold 900 students and will be designed using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold standards. There will be no need for students to be on shift during construction, as the new school will be built on land next to the current building.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The Hart Highway area was originally rural and semi-rural and was outside the boundaries of the city of Prince George. With the population growth of the 1960s and 1970s, new subdivisions were built. This brought suburbanites to the Hart area to add to the mix of people already there.
Still the Hart area maintained a separate identity from the rest of Prince George and Kelly Road secondary is a centre for that community. The
school is considered by many to be more of a family than an institution.
ACADEMICS
Although it started as a basic junior high school, increasing student population meant that Kelly Road secondary could offer a wide range of courses. For academically minded
students, the Advanced Placement program was introduced in the mid-1990s. Kelly Road was an early adopter of computer technology. In 1981 it had scheduled courses in computer science and data processing. The lab was open beyond school hours to allow students more access to the computers. Other specialty courses over the years were choir, wood products manufacturing, agriculture and culinary arts.
There was a recognition assembly for high achieving students in each grade. Students with a straight A or G report card were taken out for lunch at a restaurant in the city, such as the Shogun or the P.G. Golf and Curling Club. Kelly Road students won many district
academic awards. With an increasingly academic focus, the percentage of students going on to post-secondary education went from 15 per cent to 70 per cent by the late 1990s. The arrival of UNBC and career prep courses were factors in this increase.
Several courses encouraged active participation by the students. A Science 9 class went on a field trip to the Tumbler Ridge area and a mock wedding was held by the consumer fundamentals class. The Law 12 class often held mock trials.
In 1992, Marie Antoinette was put on trial at the courthouse.
Students learned about citizenship by going through the same
process as new Canadians.
Some Grade 8 students were helped by the Grade 8 Transition Program. Its main goal was to provide at-risk students with the behavioral and social skills necessary to be successful at the high school level. To deal with streets kids in the Hart area, principal
Don Chamberlain and District Advisory teacher Kathi Hughes created the Hart Community Connector with some funding from School District 57. Since students from the Hart area were not easily able to access programs in the bowl area, the use of the Eagles Hall was essential. The immediate goal was to meet the students' basic needs and get them off the street, but the long-term goal was to have them graduate. Gerry Brunello was the teacher, with help from a youth care worker from Reconnect.
Initially on the all-year system, Kelly Road switched to a semester system in the fall of 1974. This timetable continues to the present day. As far back as 1970, an alternate bell schedule was used to allow students time to explore clubs and other activities. The
principal, Jack Harrower, introduced this idea for Friday afternoons. Later on, a similar program was held every Wednesday. Classes were shortened 15 minutes each to allow for
one hour of student/teacher learning time. During this time, students had the opportunity to join various clubs run by teachers or participate in an academic tutorial, also run by teachers. If a student was missing an essential learning outcome, they had to participate in tutorial time. During this time, teachers were running clubs, tutorials, and participating in collaborative discussions or projects centred on the best teaching practice in various subject areas.
ACTIVITIES
Kelly Road had many dances, the most popular being the Halloween Dance. At the Valentine's Dance, there was not just a King and Queen, but a whole court that included a princess, knight, lady-in-waiting and Cupid! Something that was unique to the school and its more rural nature was the Barn Dance held in 1976.
The grad class had two major fundraisers: the Grad Fashion Show and Shenanigans. The latter was a fun night held in the gym with activities such as a dunk tank, face painting, pie throwing, casino and, of course, food.
Other activities organized for the students were Punk Days, Winter Carnival, School Spirit Day, Pep Rallies, 1920s day and Tacky Tourist Day. But it wasn't just about having a good time. Kelly Road students raised money for Christmas hampers, had
a high participation rate in the annual Milk Run and were usually the top "bleeders" of all the high schools in the blood drive.
In the late 1990s, the leadership class organized the Gym Riot for Grades 8, 9 and 10. The students were divided into four teams and competed for the Golden Shoe award. Favourite activities were the blueberry pie-eating contest and Chubby Bunny that involved stuffing one's mouth with marshmallows and trying to say the words "Chubby bunny".
The Reading Centre was open in the winter and when cold or rainy in the spring. Students could do homework, read or play games. Donut sales were held to raise money for comic books
and paperbacks.
When there were Grade 8 students at Kelly Road, the teachers
organized events for them. The Flying U Ranch trip was the big event of the year, but there was also a treasure hunt, tug-of-war and "Lotto Kelly" to raise money.
CLUBS
One of the most successful and longrunning clubs at Kelly Road secondary was the debate club. Besides being the largest organized club in the school, its members have won competitions in the district, province, and even nationally.
Kelly Road frequently sponsored debate competitions. A related club was speech arts where Kelly Road students have
done well at the provincial level. In the early years, individual students won trips to Ottawa and New York through speech
competitions.
Kelly Road encouraged its students to work towards the Duke of Edinburgh award, which involves volunteering, physical activity,
development of skills and organizing an expedition. Several students completed the requirements and some were able to go to
Victoria to receive their awards at Government House. In 1981, Mr. Austen sponsored an expedition involving cross-country skiing and camping, allowing many students to complete
this part of the award.
Kelly Road was the first school to have students hike up Mt. Robson. It started as a club and then became part of senior P.E. courses such as Community Recreation 12.
The student council had an executive plus representatives from each grade. They organized the dances and other activities for the
school population.
The yearbook club was active from the late 1960s, even before the advent of the senior grades. It was complemented by the
photography club, which took most of the photos for the yearbooks.
ATHLETICS
Kelly Road has always had a strong athletics program. At least three times the P.E. program was honoured with an award from the Canadian Association of Health Physical Education and Dance. This award was based on three measures: content of the program, participation in intramural activities and participation in extracurricular athletic programs.
At the end of the year, an athletics banquet was held to honour all of the top athletes. In addition, male and female athletes were selected as Roadrunners of the Month throughout
the school year.
Volleyball and basketball teams are usually fielded at all age levels and the school also had competitive wrestling and badminton teams. The mascot of the school and name of the Kelly Road teams is the roadrunner.
Kelly Road basketball teams have won many district and zone championships. The senior girls' team, coached by Mr. Perrin, won its first zone title in 1978. In 1993, the team went to the provincial tournament and came fourth in the province.
The most successful volleyball team was the senior boys' team that won the provincial championship in 1986 after coming in second the year before.
Kelly Road has had a badminton team from its earliest years, started by Ms. McClure and continued by Mr. Zral and Mr. Peacock. Individual and doubles players competed
successfully at many tournaments. In 1984, the senior team became provincial champions after winning as a junior team the year before. They were provincial champions three years in a row.
The first wrestling team was formed in 1979 by Mr. Chamberlain and continues to this day. There was also a very capable community coach, Don Roy, who took three students to the Canadian Junior and Juvenile Championships in Winnipeg
in 1982. The first tournament outside of the Lower Mainland was held at Kelly Road in the mid-1980s.
Members of the wrestling team would frequently qualify for provincials. The team came fifth out of 50 teams in a 1985 competition and in 1990 Kelly Road had five provincial champions. Later in the 1990s a girls' wrestling team was formed.
Mr. Hanik, who was a top soccer player in his youth, organized the first boys' soccer team in Prince George at Kelly Road. Since there was no other high school team in Prince George, they would play against a teachers' team which occasionally included Dave Todd, the then superintendent of School District 57. When soccer became popular throughout Canada, Kelly Road fielded both boys' and girls' teams.
Other early sports clubs were gymnastics and trampoline.
In later years these gave way to golf, rugby, cross-country skiing and track. There was a cheerleading squad for many years. Not surprisingly, they were named the Roadettes. On the other side of the spectrum, Kelly Road secondary has had a girls' rugby team since the late 1990s.
Did You Know?
There were hopes at one time that a pool would be built in the area under the new gym. Mr. Harrower organized penny drives that raised almost $25,000 for the facility, but the approval to build it never came. However, the school is still plumbed for a pool in that space.
The Kelly Road newspaper has had many names. It was variously known as the Times, the Amalgamum, the Courier, the Rumour and the Oracle.
During principal Jim Smith's year-end talk to the staff in the mid-1980s, Mrs. Thorstenson's dog went up and did its business on the library carpet right behind Mr. Smith.
The first two Apple computers at Kelly Road were called Adam and Eve.
Kelly Road was the first high school to have Saturday School and the first to instigate an anti-bullying program.
In 1986, Mr. Austen sponsored a Monty Python's Flying Circus club (or Monty Python's Fliegender Zircus).
Mr. Brown used to single-handedly play the senior girls' volleyball team and win - well, at least until he got too old.
Tami Maida, who became famous for quarterbacking a boys' football team in Oregon, was a student at Kelly Road secondary in the early 1980s. A TV movie was made about her life, called Quarterback Princess .
When Slave Days were still allowed, Mr. MacRae offered to be auctioned off. He was required by his "master" to carry a sign that said: "Mr. MacRae's Cross Dressing"
Two of the business managers, Bertha Turner and Cynthia Mangan, recall that bats were a problem in the 1990s (or really it was bat feces that were the problem). Mostly in the summer months a few would cluster on the walls in the old part of the
school, flying down the hallway startling the office staff and anyone who was there. It is illegal to kill bats, so the challenge was how to contain them. The school district employees would seal off any cracks or joins to prevent these creatures from inhabiting human areas. Finally one of the maintenance men decided to build a bat house and place it on the roof. The story goes that he would drive out to the school in the evenings to see
if his bat house was occupied or to see if there was a 'no vacancy' sign posted.
