SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Of all the projects Yellowknife construction company Clark Builders is working on this summer, only one can claim to send workers back to school.

Pat Phillips, project superintendent, left, and Rod Carson, project manager with Clark Builders, stand at the work site at St. Joseph School, which is undergoing substantive renovations and additions. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

The company is currently overseeing a major renovation and addition to St. Joseph School, where 30 to 35 subtrades workers are toiling away on a new gym and teachers' lounge. A victim of arson three years ago, the elementary school will expand to a total of 71,000 square feet.

"It's a complete gut and redo of the entire school," said Rod Carson, project manager for Clark Builders. The construction company is also working on the new Bank of Montreal outlet, fieldhouse and GNWT data centre on Old Airport road, as well as the redevelopment of what's being called the Centre Ice Plaza (the former home of the uptown Extra Foods).

The St. Joseph project is divided into three phases.

"In Phase 1, the existing west wing (which holds a total of nine classrooms) was completely gutted and redone with all new mechanical and electrical systems, all new power, all new lights, all new finishes," said Carson.

Phase 1B encompasses the aforementioned lounge and gym, which are new additions to the school.

"We had a really rough winter with the structural steel due to the cold. Men and machinery don't work well at -40," said Carson.

Work on that phase is expected to wrap up next month, allowing the crew to move on to Phase 2, which consists of the rest of the existing school structure.

"A lot of the guys on site have children who go to this school," said Carson, adding, "The level of co-operation from Yellowknife Catholic Schools is second to none."

Flo Campbell, principal of the school, which was built in the 1970s and currently teaches students from kindergarten to Grade 8, said the school began actively pushing for a retrofit six years ago.

"This school has always been packed to the rafters; what we had was an issue of overcrowding," said Campbell, adding that the school had about 630 students before construction began last summer.

The new building has allowed staff to dream up new rooms, including a multi-purpose room that could serve as both a food studies room and arts room, a separate room for band, which currently shares its music room with other students, and a new computer lab.

"We've been pretty excited," she said of all the plans.