Few students or teachers entered Ecole McIsaac School who didn’t learn something from Shirley Payne. After spending parts of five decades teaching at the school, some of her former coworkers plan to start a bursary in her memory.
Generations of students learned from Payne before her death earlier this month. In her memory and with the blessings of her family, a pair of her former students and teachers are organizing a bursary for Flin Flon students, starting this year.
Payne graduated from Brandon University in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in education and and major in special education. She was hired almost immediately by the Flin Flon School Division and she would stay there for decades, even coming back as a substitute teacher and tutor following her retirement. Payne was an early years teacher, seeing hundreds of young Flin Flonners go through her classroom over time - Payne also worked with students with learning disabilities and special education needs.
Payne was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, a disease with a devastatingly low survival rate. Payne pursued treatment and even continued helping students for a time after she was diagnosed, but the cancer ultimately got the last word - Payne died April 4 at age 71.
Christine Williams, now a teacher at McIsaac for the past 25 years, remembers meeting Payne for the first time in Kindergarten - when Williams herself started teaching at Ecole McIsaac School, her first job placement as an education student was with Payne. The two ended up working together for years, continuing on to last fall, even after Payne received her cancer diagnosis.
“I couldn't have asked for a better partner, a better way to start my teaching career. because she told me everything I needed to do. She showed me how to do it. She made sure I was doing it right and told me when I wasn’t - and she just never stopped,” she said.
“She was volunteering in my class this past October and she was still telling me what I could do different, how I could be better.”
Shonda Beauchamp was in Payne’s Grade 1 class as a kid, then also went on to work with her for years.
“Shirley probably exemplified everything that anyone could ever be as a teacher,” she said.
“Kids especially who needed help, she helped them - no matter what.”
Beauchamp and Williams are the two lead organizers of the bursary being organized in Payne’s memory. The two are seeking to raise money for the bursary through the Flin Flon School Division and through donations, then have the division invest the money so that a bursary can be awarded in perpetuity, with interest on the payment allowing money to be given year after year.
“I knew that I wanted to pay tribute to her in something that was going to carry on her legacy. I stopped and thought, ‘How can we do this?’ The idea of a bursary was always kind of eating away at me and I wasn't really sure where we were going to come up with this money from,” said Williams.
“She was such an impact on our lives, as teachers. That was missing and we want the next generation of teachers to have the privilege of having Shirley behind them.”
“This is Shirley. To carry on and continue to help kids, in any way, achieve their goals and be successful, this seemed fitting for her. This was natural,” Beauchamp said.
This year, the goal is to organise an initial bursary of $1,000 to be handed to a Flin Flon student this year - Payne’s family has offered to pay much of the cost for it to be awarded this year.
Donations to the bursary fund can be made through FFSD secretary-treasurer Heather Fleming and coordinated by contacting the FFSD offices at (204) 681-3413.
