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Hillcrest Private School occupies former site of Orange Lodge

April 13, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Peter Richardson

What do an ex-shoe company executive, a transplanted Manitoba school teacher and a golden retriever named Buddy all have in common? They  all play, pivotal, roles in the life of one of the most unique and inspiring, private schools, in education today.

Hillcrest Private School, located on Little York Street in a residential/commercial area of Orangeville, in a nondescript white building with an unusual history, has been in existence for approximately 38 years.

The school is the brainchild of Gail Hooper, who is both the principal and one of the teachers, at the school, which came into being, when Gail, who was home-schooling several children, including her own, approached the Ministry of Education, to ensure that she was not overstepping the boundaries of home schooling in Ontario.

Following a visit and inspection from a Ministry representative, she was told that rather than continuing home schooling, Gail should, instead register with the Ministry as a private school. The inspector had been so impressed with the curriculum and her teaching that he even assisted in providing and explaining the required paperwork.

As Gail tells it, she and her husband Larry were taking dance lessons at the time and their instructor mentioned that she was having difficulty affording the space they were using . Gail proposed that she rent the space during the day and so Hillcrest was incarnated.

Larry built all the furniture for the school, so that it could all be moved out of the way, for the dance classes, while maintaining his day job as the Operations Manager for the Bata Shoe Company in Toronto.

The current location for the school, at 7 Little York Street, was originally the first Orange Lodge in Orangeville, and when the Hoopers took it over, they discovered many beautifully handwritten minutes from the meetings, which now reside in the Dufferin County Museum and Archives. They also found that the building was insulated, with sheep’s wool. Besides keeping the building warm and toasty, the wool has also served to prevent any type of insect or bug from setting up residence within. To this day, not even the ubiquitous spiders can be found living in the school.

Today, the school has pre-school and after-school programs and teaches all grades, from junior kindergarten through to grade 12. The high school classes are taught entirely online and Hillcrest was the first school in Canada to offer an online secondary curriculum. The students work on their assignments, with the guidance of online teachers and with the oversight of the Hillcrest staff.

Not a single graduate of Hillcrest’s secondary classes has ever failed to complete their college or university degree programs.

However, what makes this school truly unique and fascinating, are the tremendously varied and exciting opportunities offered to the students.

Hillcrest was in a partnership with NASA, in a project whereby schools were sent seeds, some of which had been sent into space, which were to be planted and nurtured, according to a strict set of criteria. The study spanned several years and the students were required to report on their progress and results.

Hillcrest was one of only a few schools that followed the study to the letter and it was this fact that leaves Larry to believe  that is why their students were chosen to have the opportunity to talk with astronaut Marc Garneau while he was in space. Their talk lasted half an hour and resulted in one of the more humorous incidents in the school’s analogues.

The students had been asked to prepare random questions to ask Marc and these were drawn from a bowl so as to conceal what would be asked and not show any favouritism amongst the students. When one question was chosen, it asked whether the astronauts could burp or pass gas in space, much to the dismay of the staff. Marc, however, was delighted and explained that this was an excellent question, since if they were to burp, they could drown in the zero gravity of space and so were required to take a special medication to prevent any such mishap.

On another occasion, Sir Edmund Hilary, who had heard of this amazing school from a friend living near Orangeville who was a parent and a rather well-known film director, called Larry to ask if he could come and visit with the students. After overcoming his incredulity at receiving such a call from such a well-known figure, he invited Hilary to attend and while at the school, the visitor fielded many questions from the children, before reading to them from a comic book about his adventures that Gail had previously purchased for the school library.

Another such visit was from an aspiring writer of children books who came to the school to ask the children about what they thought would make a good children’s book. The young author was the soon-to-be-acclaimed Robert Munch!

Following his retirement from Bata and Athletes World, the division he started there,  Larry Hooper returned to university to get his degree in education before joining Gail as a full-time member of the school staff.

Although his primary role is that of an administrator and business manager, Larry teaches and tutors, does all the maintenance, builds playgrounds, is the official stoop-and-scoop practitioner for Buddy and provides a shuttle service for some of the students as required. When not doing that, he can be found behind a felt table, from time to time enjoying a game of poker with friends from the World Poker Tour.

Gail has a belief that every student is special and that everyone deserves to be the best they can be. This has therefore become the driving motivation behind the school and it shows everywhere.

On the surface, there is little apparent structure, but watch for only a few moments and you realize that this is far from the truth. Every student is given as much individual attention as they require and the staff are devoted to their responsibilities and their charges.

Classes move between the three indoor areas of study, the upper and lower levels of the main  building and the adjacent, Mennonite-built portable and the outdoor playground and learning areas. Weather permitting, the lower grades can often be found sitting under a timber frame gazebo, handcrafted by one of the parents, listening to their teacher read stories and answering questions.

French is taught beginning in JK and the students have music education, drama and naturally the three Rs, but often intermixed with living history or life lessons that present themselves – such as the time that the entire school was driven up to Collingwood  to witness the last ship to be launched from the Collingwood Shipyards, an adventure that resulted in a lot of wet feet. But that is a story for another time.

All of the comings and goings have been overseen by a succession of British Golden Retrievers, starting with Shooter 1, then Shooter 2,  Mahay and finally Buddy.  Buddy is a trained Compassionate Dog and will soon be certified as Therapy Dog, and he loves all the children dearly. He is also one  of the one in every 10,000 dogs that can sense when a person is about to suffer a seizure, a fact discovered during a rehearsal for a Christmas concert, when he would not quit circling one of the children on stage. Despite repeated urgings to get off the stage, Buddy refused and just as the young boy began to collapse, Larry and the staff realized the problem and caught the child.

Both the child and Buddy were fine and Buddy’s reputation was enshrined. It was further enhanced when he prevented a patient with mental health issues from entering the school grounds. No one was harmed, including the patient, and police were grateful to find their man, thanks to Buddy.

Gail and Larry were both quick to point out that the school is what it is, in part, due to the generosity and largesse of their parents and graduates. Whenever a problem arises or a need becomes apparent, the parents are always the first to step up, no matter the issue. From building a wonderful cloak room bench, to the magnificent timber frame building, to recent windstorm damage, it has been the parents who were first in line to help and the Hoopers are quick to praise them and thank them for it.

Those parents come from every walk of life, from millionaires to regular Joes, all bound by their gratitude for this wonderful, little one-room school, from whose halls have come doctors, lawyers, professors and scientists.

The acting director of Canada’s Disease Control Centre is a graduate and so is Gail and Larry’s daughter, but perhaps the most unique graduate position from a most unique school, is a beekeeper, in fact, Canada’s bee keeper – Brian Lacey, Apiculturist (beekeeper) for the Federal Government.

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