By Pamela Eadie
Procrastinating Grade 12 students who haven’t completed the mandatory 40 hours of community service needed to graduate may end up scrambling to find volunteer opportunities, says a high school guidance counsellor.
“There is a significant number of students in Grade 12 who haven’t completed it yet,” says Darl DiMillo, the guidance counsellor at Immaculata High School in charge of community service hours.
DiMillo says finding volunteer opportunities may be difficult if large numbers of students flood the volunteer market at the last minute. “It could become problematic if there’s not enough opportunities out there.”
He says some organizations that accept volunteers, like hospitals and blood donor clinics, have waiting lists of people willing to volunteer.
DiMillo estimates about 30 to 35 per cent of Immaculata’s Grade 12 students have completed and logged their hours. He believes there are a number of students who have completed all or part of their hours, but haven’t registered them yet.
“We’re certainly going to be highlighting it more and more as the graduation date approaches,” says Denise André, Immaculata’s principal.
The situation at Lisgar Collegiate Institute is not much different.
“I think we’re the same as most other schools, with a good chunk of the school’s population in their final year who haven’t completed their community service requirements,” says Lisgar principal Angela Spence.
Spence won’t say that students are at risk of not graduating. “I think the majority of students will do it, because they know it needs to get done, just not right away,” she says.
This year’s graduating Grade 12 class will be the first to graduate under the new curriculum implemented by the Ontario government, including the mandatory community service. Students have been aware of the requirement since their first year of high school.
Heather Woltman, a Grade 12 Lisgar student on student council, says volunteering is not among her classmates’ priorities.
“I think it is out of sight, out of mind…it hasn’t really been a large topic of discussion since it was brought up, but it is necessary now that we’ve hit the crunch,” says Woltman.
“A lot of people are more concerned about what university they want to go to, and I think it seems to be a little blip that people are overlooking, but everyone assumes will get done.”
Woltman estimates she has done over 300 hours of community service, including volunteering as a counsellor at a day camp.
She hasn’t gotten around to logging her hours with her school for credit, so she is counted among those who are considered incomplete.
“I hope it’s a matter of formality,” she says. “I’m not concerned yet, maybe I should be. I think everyone’s going to get it done but we’re going to get it done at the twenty-third hour.”
Hasan Sheikh did not wait until the twenty-third hour; a Grade 11 student at Lisgar, he did his community service over a year ago at CHEO and at a soccer camp.
Like Woltman, he hasn’t registered his hours yet, and they won’t count until he does.
Another potential problem could be the volume of paperwork school staff will face if too many students complete and register their hours.
Joan Spice, public school board trustee for Somerset and Kitchissippi wards, says the issue needs attention.
“It’s a potentially very serious issue that I think the board should look into,” says Spice. “It’s a problem which the board has to solve at all different levels, the solution has to be a common one.”
But Spence says this is the students’ responsibility, and she is confident they will pull it off.
“I guess that’s why I am not as panicked as some people are,” she says.
“I don’t think it’s the end of the world, I think most of them will be the responsible young people they normally are under most circumstances, and they will do what they need to do, its just they’ll leave it dangerously late.”