Students of Westbrook School started the school year in a brand new facility Sept. 8.
Principal Christine Parker said it was exciting to see the new school open for students. The new school year marks her 10th anniversary at Westbrook, making the opening of the brand new facility all the more exciting.
“It’s quite an honour to have this opportunity to be in this community for that amount of time,” she said.
According to Parker, teachers moved into the facility in late August, and it was a “little bit of a crunch” getting the school ready for students.
To accommodate the logistical challenges of opening the new school, the Rocky View Schools (RVS) Board of Trustees approved a staggered entry on Sept. 8 and 9, with the first full day of classes beginning Sept. 10.
“We’re really starting to get into the flow,” Parker said.
The old Westbrook School building was built in 1953, she said, and it is exciting to now have the newest school in the district.
Typically around 150 students attend Westbrook School, she said, but at times it has seen as many as 180 students in the hallways.
With a laugh, Parker said it was amazing to be in the new space, but it can be surreal standing at the bus drop-off zone where the old school once stood.
“There is no footprint of the old school; it is totally gone,” she said. “It’s been reclaimed as a space that we’re using.”
It was hard to say goodbye to the old building, Parker said, adding she saved a few special items including the coat hooks from the original staff room.
“The hooks themselves, you can tell, they're designed differently, they’re bigger and more solid,” she said.
Parker added she is proud to work for a school division that recognized the need for a new school in a community experiencing smaller growth compared to other areas of the region.
“I know the needs are high,” Parker said. “I really think it is amazing that RVS spent the time to look at alternative ways to build a school and do the funding from RVS with some assistance from the Province.”
She added Friends of Westbrook, the school's fundraising arm, were able to secure a $200,000 matching grant to support increasing the size of the school's gym.
The transition has been interesting, Parker said, because not only are students and staff getting oriented in the new school, they are also adjusting to COVID-19 protocols that have been put in place.
The design of the new school has been especially exciting, she added, because it is particularly helpful in supporting health measures that have been put in place.
“I feel much more confident in the space that we have with COVID-19 than if I would have been moving back into a very closed, very tight hallway,” Parker said. “I feel very, very confident with the ability to keep kids physically distanced.”
One of the challenges of opening a new school during COVID-19 was that families would be unable to tour the facility before the first day of classes, Parker said. Staff got creative and created a special section on the website offering a virtual tour using photos to showcase the new building.
“We wanted to comfort people,” Parker said. “We put the pictures online so they could see the space and see how much space there is.”
She noted that while the majority of construction is complete, some finishing touches are being put in by contractors.
“There’s been a lot of love put into it,” Parker said. “The community got the building they deserved."
