The day J.A. Williams High School principal Terry Moghrabi learned Lac La Biche was approved for a new Grade 9-12 school to be attached to the Bold Center, he summed up his feelings in just a few words as he made the announcement to his students in the JAWS gymnasium.
“I’m stoked,” he said, to the cheers of students.
The announcement by the provincial government was made official on Friday at the Bold Center’s Devon room in an announcement by Premier Ed Stelmach and Minister of Infrastructure and MLA for St. Paul-Lac La Biche Ray Danyluk.
Beyond the announcement that the school will be built, there are few details. The cost has yet to be determined, and the completion date is still uncertain. The only definite is that it will be attached to the Bold Center, and will be built after a planning process that will involve community consultations. The design phase will likely last about six months, said Northern Lights School Division superintendent Roger Nippard.
“The next step will be putting a collection of people together from the community – students, parents, and other interested community members – and then starting to gather some ideas relevant to the design,” he said.
The new school will take into consideration the evolving nature of education, and the integration of digital technologies, as well as traditional learning environments. “It’s really a departure from the bricks and mortar traditional school, so something that’s built for the 21st century,” said Nippard. “It’s something built for the future that will accommodate the type of teaching and learning that kids are going to be involved with in the information age.”
Building for the future also means accounting for the region’s growth that has been projected in various government studies, and the initial high school proposal estimated a cost of $28-million, which is roughly the cost of building an 800-student school. The current J.A. Williams school has 520 students.
Building onto the Bold Center will save the construction costs of a gymnasium and library, with the added benefit of including an amphitheatre and other facilities at the Bold Center that the school wouldn’t otherwise have. There’s a possibility that the savings created by the pre-existing facilities could be used to provide enhancements in other areas, said the superintendent.
“There’s so many things here we can take advantage of that are already here, that will enable us to maybe do some extra things. It’s going to be a fascinating process. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said.