REGINA — The students of St. Raphael School finally got to experience their grand opening ceremonies this week.
The new Catholic school, which is part of the joint-use school in northeast Regina alongside tawâw School in the public division, has been holding classes since January. But Wednesday marked the official opening with dignitaries in attendance, including Education Minister Everett Hindley.
Hindley called it “just a great facility. A beautiful building.” The minister added that it is more than just a building.
“It's what this means to the students and to the community as a whole. It's more than just a school. It provides a central hub, I think, for this part of Regina. And you can see it on the faces of the students who are here today participating in the ceremony, whether they were part of the choir or were speaking at the podium, at the microphone, how proud they are of the school, what it means to them, and I think how it enhances their learning experience.”
The joint-use facility is designed to serve up to 1,000 students, 500 in each school, and includes a shared community space as well as a child-care centre with capacity for 51 children.
The entire project cost $63.7 million for construction of the joint-use facility, while the City of Regina provided funding for the shared community space.
The joint-use facility replaces former aging schools in the vicinity that were at the end of their useful life. The new Catholic school combines students from the former St. Michael and St. Peter schools.
Tammy Appell, principal of St. Raphael, said students from those schools have welcomed the move.
“Both St. Michael and St. Peter were small elementary schools,” Appell said. “And so while we tried to prepare the students that this was going to be a big shift, that we will be under one roof as one large school will feel different, we really wanted to retain that sense of community. We wanted them to be a part of that move in.”
Unfortunately, she said, Mother Nature didn't co-operate on the day of the move. Appell said it was -45 C at 6 a.m. on the day of the move, and that meant no school buses that morning.
“And so that complicated things, but also what our students have learned through this entire experience and our staff is resiliency. You know, we can do hard things when we have a group working together to a common goal. And then when you enter the building, you realize that all the hard work is worth it.”
She added that “if you could have been here on the first day of classes, you would have heard the joy in the halls. They were ecstatic. This is beyond anyone's expectation. And if you saw the buildings in their condition, St. Peter and St. Michael, as lovely as they were, those buildings were no longer sustainable. And so coming here and having beautiful light coming in the windows and having open spaces to do learning, flexibility of garage doors in classrooms, the students and the staff just feel so lucky and so blessed.”
Minister Hindley said there were future plans for new schools, working with school divisions to meet needs “whether they are enrolment-related pressures and the need for new schools there or perhaps in the case of some other areas where it's replacement projects. Consolidating schools, building schools that are bigger, that can handle more capacity, that replace existing schools.”
“That's some of the conversations that we continue to have and we look at that on a province-wide basis and trying to make sure that we can address all of those concerns as quickly and effectively and efficiently as we can. So in this year's budget, three more schools have been added into the queue for new schools being built in Saskatchewan.
“But we'll continue to have those conversations with the school divisions and the school boards here in Regina about what might be next.”
