Three older schools to become one new
Students celebrate groundbreaking for Ivor Dent, set to open in 2017
Primary students in Edmonton’s northeast neighbourhoods are getting a new school. Lesson one: sharing.
Groundbreaking for the $25-million Ivor Dent School, which is scheduled to open in 2017 next to the existing Rundle School, took place Wednesday.
Students from three schools — K-6 schools Rundle and R.J Scott and junior high Lawton School — will share the new facility. About 650 students are expected to attend.
READY TO LEARN
The promise of a newly built school is an exciting one for 12-year-old Rundle student Fardoza Abdi Kadir.
“I’m excited for it, I can’t wait,” said Kadir who, along with her sister, Faiza, 7, and her brothers Abdi and Zakariya, 6, will be some of the first students at Ivor Dent K-9, a project that has seen its share of speed bumps, including the discovery of an abandoned coal mine below the construction site.
“It’s a new school and it will be more advanced and better,” she said, adding her favourite part of her studies is when she gets to use the Chromebook computers.
THE BUY-IN
Students aren’t the only ones who had to be convinced of the benefits of a new school.
“You always must make decisions that the community will not just accept but embrace,” Alberta Education Minister David Eggen said.
“Building and rejuvenating in established communities is an innovative idea,” he said. “It helps us receive the second or third generation of families now moving into neighbourhoods like this and there will be a new school to serve them. It’s a nice combination. We can realize efficiencies, build to the latest technology and I think that it has a lot of potential around the province.”
NOT AN EASY ASSIGNMENT
Once the school is built, putting three school populations under one roof won’t be as simple as ringing a bell and taking attendance.
Administrations will have to consolidate student information, build classes out of the existing under-enrolled ones and staff them accordingly.
“Is it complex? Absolutely. But is it exciting? Absolutely,” said Michael Janz, board chairman for Edmonton Public Schools. “The fact that principals are working so closely together and they’re anticipating this, we know it’s coming, we have a timeline, we know construction is underway, it allows for a sense of excitement around the school to build.”
Janz said the idea of a replacement school isn’t totally new, but a three-to-one consolidation is going to prove an education to the educators while saving the board money in the process.
“By taking three schools that are being underutilized, and are energy inefficient and are wasting heat and electricity, bringing them into this new facility, these schools are going to pay for themselves very quickly in terms of efficiencies of operations and of energy,” Janz said.
PREPPING FOR FINALS
Now that the dirt is being moved, the next steps are still waiting to be revealed.
“We were waiting for quite a while for everything to get sorted out,” said Greg Purschke, principal of Lawton Junior High School. “Now that it’s started we’ll find out in the fall in terms of timelines and what needs to be done.”
Purschke said he expects the transition to be a smooth one, particularly for Rundle School students, who simply have to walk across the field to get to the new location.
“Bringing a K-9 together is not unusual now, there’s a half a dozen of them and a few more on the way. So the district has protocols and templates in place for putting that together,” he said. “But for the community, it’s quite a big deal.
“They’re energized now and they’re excited about what’s coming up and they can’t wait for this to happen. They’ve been asking me, ‘When is this going to happen?’ Finally, here we are.”