Allain St-Cyr expansion to start this month
$12.79-million addition expected to be finished by the end of 2018
Emelie Peacock
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Ecole Allain St-Cyr will have a new gymnasium, two new classrooms and instructional space for students with special needs by the end of 2018.
Construction is set to begin mid-June on a 1,315-square-metre addition to the school, meant to house middle and high school students. The announcement Friday of $12.79 million from the GNWT for the addition comes after a six-year court battle by the French school board to get the project funded.
Principal Genevieve Charron said the expansion has been planned so students can continue their regular schooling during construction.
The Government of the Northwest Territories is the sole contributor to the project, after Heritage Canada announced in May it would not provide funding.
The expansion will include a 476-square-metre gymnasium with a stage, two multi-purpose classrooms, instructional space for students with special needs and open areas for student relaxation.
The gym is larger than the 404-square-metre model previously considered by the GNWT and because of this change, the government opted for a synthetic gym floor.
Commission scolaire francophone Territoires du Nord-Ouest superintendent Yvonne Careen said the board decided to take on the approximately $200,000 cost of adding a hardwood floor but the board must have the money or at least a plan for how to pay the GNWT by December. Careen plans to approach the City of Yellowknife, the diamond mines and various foundations for funding.
Hardwood floors are important to Careen, as they give better quality of play and she wants the school to have the same quality of flooring as the other schools in the city.
Olin Lovely, assistant deputy minister of corporate services at the education department, said the new addition will also increase school capacity from 161 to 193 students. There are currently 83 junior kindergarten through Grade 6 students and 30 Grade 7 to 12 students enrolled at the school.
Simon Cloutier, president of the commission scolaire, said the plan for the addition was to create a separation between elementary school students and those in middle to high school.
"When you have Junior K to Grade 12 school, the kids especially in high school want to have their own space, their own rooms, their own stuff," he said.
With careful planning, Careen said students will no longer have to utilize classrooms in the adjacent William McDonald Middle School.
Five classrooms at William McDonald are currently used by students from Allain St-Cyr. Careen welcomes the addition but said the school will still need more classrooms and specialty spaces, the latter allowing students to learn practical skills such as welding, small engine repair, aesthetics, hairdressing and construction.
Cloutier said the Commission scolaire is in talks with the government about a phase two of construction, which he hopes Heritage Canada will contribute money to as well. Lovely said the department has offered $50,000 for the school board to prepare an application for cultural funding from Heritage Canada.
A 2012 Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories ruling awarded the Commission scolaire francophone a $15-million expansion including a gymnasium, science lab, larger playground and learning space for special needs students. The original ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2015, but the new decision still required the government to build a gymnasium and special needs teaching space.
