The 2015 Western Canada Summer Games committee is hoping Rocky View Schools will lend infrastructure support to its bid to host the games after making a presentation to trustees, March 3.
Former Airdrie mayor Linda Bruce and sports scientist Shane Esau sought the use of the tri-schools, George McDougall, Edwards Elementary and Airdrie Middle School, for housing the athletes, administrative space and gymnasiums of both high schools for the competition.
“None of the gyms at Genesis Place meet the requirements, but both the gyms at the high schools do,” said Esau.
“One high school would be a practice gym and one would be competition.”
The Games committee cannot provide money to the schools for the rental of the facility, but Bruce said the legacy would help offset school usage.
“The legacy and impact of the schools is the upgrade to the facilities,” she said.
“Whatever is needed, it will be upgraded by this group to ensure they are ready for that level (of competition).”
Airdrie Trustee Sylvia Eggerer called the chance at hosting a “unique experience” and said it would stay with athletes for a lifetime.
“It’s always a benefit when anything like this happens,” she said.
The group’s deadline to submit its bid for the games in April 1 and by May, a short list will be created for finalists and site visits will be conducted. The winner will be chosen in June.
The event will include nine days of competition in August and feature 2,300 athletes, 400 coaches, 300 officials and 3,000 volunteers across 18 sports.
The committee planned to meet with Darrell Couture, RVS’ superintendent of business and operations, to discuss further logistics before a decision could be made.
Chestermere High School will get its long-awaited lights for its football field after trustees agreed to release $15,000 cash-in-lieu funding to the school.
Rocky View Schools’ Maintenance Department is now ready to proceed with the installation.
Darrell Couture said the project is long overdue.
“It’s been three years from when the project was first conceived and started,” he said.
In the future, due to budgetary constraints, Rocky View Schools will only provide cash-in-lieu funding to schools within Rocky View County.
Superintendent of Schools Greg Bass gave an update on RVS’ instructional practices and much progress has been made.
“Evidence of this comes in many forms,” he said.
“Teachers and students are creating and sharing media-rich representations of ideas. Students and teachers are collaborating more and more.”
Some of the completed goals for RVS include teachers and students using digital media such as iPads, iPods, SMART tables and launching Google Apps in all schools.
“The new challenge will be to continue to inspire students and teachers with these interactive resources and technologies,” Bass said.
“Using these tools to help our learners more deeply understand the curriculum will help RVS demonstrate the power of 21st Century instructional practices.”
The Elbow Valley Architects, comprised of grades 3 and 4 students from Elbow Valley Elementary, presented their science projects to trustees about the mechanics of building simple machines.
To test their knowledge of what they learned throughout the process, students assembled miniature amusement parks and trustees viewed the projects at their board meeting..
The students were recognized by the vice president of Calaway Park for their commitment to science and learning for their projects at a recent school presentation in Elbow Valley.
