Calgary kids go back to school in brand-new buildings
The bell rang for the first time at several new Calgary schools Tuesday, a batch of openings one local trustee calls unprecedented.
Thousands of students in both the public and separate boards walked through the freshly painted hallways of new facilities in all corners of the city, with a handful of others scheduled to be ready later in the year.
As students trickled into the newly opened Copperfield K-4 school in the city’s southeast Tuesday morning, Calgary Board of Education trustee Amber Stewart said the opening of six new public schools (with two others slightly delayed) is a big deal for a city that has struggled to provide educational facilities in far-flung communities.
“I’ve been a Calgarian a long time and I don’t think we’ve had this many that have opened all in one short space,” she said.
“I can’t stress how critical it is. All of these new communities have lots of young kids and this infrastructure’s been badly needed for a very long time.”
The new Copperfield school is one of three that opened in Stewart’s area Tuesday, along with K-4 public schools in New Brighton and Auburn Bay. The first day of school also saw the openings of Nelson Mandela high school in Saddleridge, William D. Pratt middle school in Rocky Ridge/ Royal Oak and a new K-4 school in Evanston.
Two more CBE schools slated to open Tuesday have been delayed until later this month — Peter Lougheed middle school in Saddleridge and Buffalo Rubbing Stone K-4 in Panorama Hills. The new schools are expected to accommodate 6,600 students.
The Calgary Catholic School District is adding four new schools this year, though only Our Lady of Grace school in Evanston opened Tuesday, a week after most separate board students returned to class. Prince of Peace school in Auburn Bay will have to wait several more weeks to open due to weather-related delays, while new elementary schools in Cranston and New Brighton won’t be ready until the new year.
CCSD Chair Cheryl Low is excited the board is able to provide new educational opportunities in the communities they’re needed most.
“It’s all about putting schools in the neighbourhoods where students live,” she said.
“They’re critical because we’ve been playing catch-up to meet the needs of the community.”
According to Alberta Infrastructure, 46 new Calgary schools and modernization projects are slated to wrap up between now and 2018. Last October, the NDP government announced 101 school projects provincewide would be delayed, blaming the previous Progressive Conservative government for being too optimistic about construction timelines.
In total, 197 projects are on the books to be completed by 2018.
But even as some students will have to wait a little longer before they are able to attend school in their own neighbourhood, back in Copperfield, parents are thrilled that hours previously spent every week on school buses will be now be spent with family.
Jaime Horner made the 10-minute walk from her Copperfield home with her five-year-old daughter Isabelle Harvatt to the community’s newest school Tuesday morning, and was happy she no longer has to put her kids on school buses to make a sometimes painful commute.
“I’m really nervous a little bit — opening something new is always nerve-racking, but I’m really excited for it,” she said.
“Not waiting for the bus is a huge, huge positive. Some days (Isabelle was on the bus) maybe 20 minutes, other days it was like 45 and the bus would break down and nobody would call you.”
Pattie-Ann Swain is Copperfield school’s first principal, and she greeted students and parents as they walked through the doors for the first time.
She said opening any new school is a challenge, but she’s excited that the facility will now become a hub for the community.
“They’ll be able to walk to school and they’ll be able to form relationships in the community,” said Swain, who is welcoming about 450 children at the school that has the capacity for about 600.
“This school was made with a lot of love, and a little bit of angst.”