A modernization plan at Ponoka Composite High School set to get underway in September will mean more open, collaborative spaces for students and teachers.
The $11-million renovation will include a redesign of the instructional areas at the north end of the school and the administration area where people enter the building, and an updating of the mechanical and electrical systems.
Principal Ian Rawlinson said the philosophy with the renovations is to really meet the needs of today’s learners. “Kids learn very differently than they did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago so our school will reflect that,” he said.
Rawlinson said the modernized school space will be team-centred, with technology infused throughout the building. Rather than students going to computer class, there will be computers all over the school. He said there will be more comfortable areas for students to learn in, with the school having more of a college feel with areas where kids can go to sit comfortably and learn in a team environment. The teachers will be working in a collaborative way in teams to make the school day better for the more than 500 students between Grades 9 to 12.
The first phase of the project is expected to take two years to complete and will focus on the humanities area, library, resource centre, student services area and administrative offices at the school.
“Our kids are pretty pumped about it,” Rawlinson said. “It will look nothing like a traditional kind of environment.”
A facility audit in 2000 first suggested Ponoka Composite High School needed work to improve the facility. Wolf Creek Public Schools originally received funding to improve Ponoka Composite and connect two parts of the Ponoka Elementary School years ago, but at the time the funding wasn’t sufficient to complete either project. The Alberta government has allowed the division to combine the money from both initial plans for the first phase of the Ponoka Composite High School modernization.
Joe Henderson, secretary-treasurer of Wolf Creek Public Schools, said with the modernization much of the instructional area will open up, giving students areas where they can work together on group projects as well as traditional classroom spaces.
“There is going to be a very open functional design so hopefully it’s something that more matches the learning needs of today’s students,” Henderson said.
The school was built in 1966 and had the commons and food area renovated in the late 1980s or early 1990s, but since then there has been no substantial work done at the school, Henderson said.
The school division doesn’t yet have funding for phase two of the project, which will include modernization of the gymnasium, fine arts area and theatre and the career and technology services areas.
Rawlinson said they have a large school with a lot of rooms, so during the renovations they will be shutting one whole instructional area down and moving students into temporary classrooms that haven’t been used for a while.
sobrien@www.reddeeradvocate.com