‘HISTORY IN THE MAKING’
Modern Indigenous facility to include cultural space
Students perform a traditional dance at Ben Calf Robe-St. Clare School on Monday. The Alberta government announced it will replace the school, which was built in 1950. Ninety-seven per cent of the students at the school identify as Indigenous.
The provincial government’s pledge to rebuild an Edmonton Catholic school focused on Indigenous language and culture is “a bit of justice,” and a step toward reconciliation, elder Betty Letendre said.
“This is history in the making, not only for the Edmonton Catholic School district, but for our Indigenous people,” Letendre, who manages the school board’s council of elders, said Monday.
“I don’t know if in my lifetime I’ll see true reconciliation, but this is the beginning of that, and this is justice for all the children that were in residential school, the Sixties Scoop, you name it,” she said. “This is a bit of justice for them and our people.”
Education Minister David Eggen said Monday he has granted the Edmonton Catholic school board’s request to replace the aging K-9 Ben Calf Robe-St. Clare school building after a school district analysis found a modernization would have substantial drawbacks.
In March 2017, Eggen approved an $18.2-million modernization project for the building, which was built in the late 1940s and early 1950s and expanded in 1972.
However, when the school district began more detailed plans, staff found that renovating the old building at 11833 64 St. while keeping children on site could take as long as five years, and require another $1 million for modular classrooms. A sacred cultural space and cafeteria the community said they want would also be difficult to include with the site constraints.
In December, the school board asked the minister for $6 million more to build a replacement school adjacent to the existing building, and offered to throw in $2 million of district money to pay for a sacred space where the school community could hold ceremonies and cultural events.
On Monday, students, staff and others gathered in the school gym let out sustained cheers when Eggen said the new, larger building to host 700 pupils was approved.
“I take it we made the right choice,” Eggen said.
The government aims to have the $26-million building constructed by 2020, Eggen said.
In 1981, the Catholic school district introduced a First Nations-focused program at St. Pius X School in Sherbrooke, according to the Edmonton Journal archives.
Parents pushed for a school dedicated to including Indigenous language and culture, Letendre said, and in 1989, St. Clare school became Ben Calf Robe-St. Clare. The board’s move came with some critiques from families who felt pushed out of St. Clare school, and there were some questions about segregating Indigenous students from others, according to Journal stories from the 1980s.
Letendre said Monday it’s important for Indigenous students to have a school of their own to foster a sense of identity and pride.
Students come to the school from all over the city, principal Suzanne Szojka said, and about 97 per cent self-identify as Indigenous.
The school is at 97 per cent capacity with 434 students enrolled as of Monday.
The aging building has drafty windows and showers that don’t work well, Szojka said. Staff and families want more natural light inside, more places students can learn outdoors, and larger, more flexible spaces where students are not always boxed off into singleclass groupings, she said.
Letendre said they may also revisit the new building ’s name. Ben Calf Robe was a Blackfoot educator from Treaty 7, and Edmonton is located in Treaty 6 territory.