St. Kateri one of eight new schools now open
Big building even has maps hanging on a wall to keep everyone from getting lost
Photographer Rob Bredin stood on a ladder in front of St. Kateri Tekakwitha School on Tuesday and encouraged 455 children to smile.
His picture will go down in school history, as this is the first-ever class of St. Kateri Tekakwitha School in Harbour Landing. Some of the students were well prepared, wearing new St. Kateri Ravens T-shirts.
“This happens once, and you guys are going to be part of it,” Bredin told the group. “How cool is that?”
There was a loud humming as the smiling students prolonged their “cheese.”
Then it was back to class.
St. Kateri is one of eight new schools to open in Regina on Tuesday, including St. Kateri’s Regina Public Schools counterpart, Ecole Harbour Landing School.
The schools, joined by a shared community area, are more than 11,000 square feet combined. Their size will take some getting used to for the new students, most of whom came from the much smaller Deshaye and St. Pius X Catholic schools.
“It’s really big compared to all the other schools I went to. It’s way newer than any school I’ve ever been to,” said Grade 7 student Emerson Verot, who lived abroad before she started at Deshaye last year.
“When we went through, my mom said this is basically like a high school,” said Grade 5 student Aiden Thompson.
There are maps on the wall next to the office to prevent people from getting lost.
Thompson hasn’t lost his way yet, “but I imagine it’ll happen sometime.”
“I already have,” said Rhys Antwi, a Grade 8 student.
He isn’t sure how it happened, but he ended up in the public school while trying to find a washroom.
He’s not the only one. A Grade 1 student got distracted on the playground and was retrieved from the public school.
In a new school, there have been a few glitches on the first day.
Office administrator Elishia Larwood has learned to plug one ear while making announcements, as her voice echoes so loudly over the intercom.
One such announcement was to tell students and staff to ignore a bell that had rung in error.
Every few minutes shortly after noon, about a dozen students walked into the office alone or in pairs, delivering paper attendance sheets on behalf of their teachers.
That’s because a new computer program prevents the new schools from digitally logging attendance.
“There’s lots of phone calls and lots of contacting of families and just trying to be a director of traffic. It’s a lot busier than it has been at other schools,” said Larwood, who most recently worked at Deshaye.
From moving students’ records to compiling emergency lists and consent forms, “Everything’s brand new, so everything (is starting) from scratch.”
The newness is Thompson’s favourite part.
“Coming from a school that was like 100 years old, everything ’s just so new and awesome,” he said.
(Actually, Deshaye opened in 1965, but point taken.)
Tuesday was the first day ever for six other new Regina schools.
In northwest Regina, St. Nicholas and Plainsview welcomed students for the first time, as did St. Elizabeth and Wascana Plains in the southeast.
In North Central, Scott Collegiate reopened in the new Mamaweyatitan Centre.
Ecole Connaught students returned to their Cathedral area home, after spending the past three years at the old Wascana School, awaiting their school rebuild.