Four new schools ready to open doors

CALGARY HERALD AUGUST 14, 2012

Alex Frazer-Harrison

For Back to School

It’s not every day you get to be part of history in the making, but in a few weeks students and staff at four brand-new public schools will be doing just that.

Nose Creek School in Coventry Hills will soon open to 455 students in grades 4 to 8, allowing kids who previously had to be bused to Colonel Macleod school way down on 16th Avenue N.E. a chance to learn and play in their own neighbourhood.

“This has been a labour of love, and an opportunity that seldom comes along in a career,” says incoming principal Carol A. Hall, who comes to the new school from Colonel Macleod, so she won’t be a stranger to many of the kids.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to build something from the ground up.”

The school was constructed, like the other new schools built for the Calgary Board of Education this year, under a P3 (public-private partnership) initiative. Hall says all four schools use the same basic two-storey “batwing” design, with a core school connected to wings of modular classrooms, adding her school is set up to ultimately accommodate 800 students.

Although classes have yet to start, future Nose Creek students have already been involved in establishing new traditions, including picking the sports team name (Kodiaks). “The student voice will be a huge part of what we do here,” says Hall.

Hall says the school will incorporate up-to-date technology, such as smartboards, and the Learning Commons (formerly called the library) will feature innovations such as a Wall Talker — a whiteboard students can use to plan projects — and a 55-inch flat screen connected to a Mac Mini that will allow students to share projects from their iPads using AirServer.

Hall says the new schools have also partnered with Alberta College of Art + Design to base artists at the schools for several months.

Nose Creek is one of four new public schools opening this fall. The others — like Nose Creek, also middle schools in the north part of Calgary — are Captain Nichola Goddard School (grades 4-9) in Panorama Hills, Twelve Mile Coulee School (4-9) in Tuscany, and Ted Harrison School (5-9) in Taradale.

The only new school under construction is Robert Thirsk High School, a 10-12 in Arbour Lake set to open during the 2013-2014 school year. The CBE also has modernization projects underway at Western Canada and Lord Shaughnessy high schools.