St. Veronica School in southwest Airdrie officially opened for classes this week, welcoming 365 students and 20 staff members one year ahead of schedule.
Project manager Andrew Van Beilen said it took many hours of overtime to finish the more than 40,000 sq.-ft. facility a year early.
“It’s been lots of tight coordination, getting guys right on top of each other following a tight sequence to get the school done”, said Van Beilen.
“The last four weeks, you wouldn’t be able to tell this was the same school, this was a construction zone right up until three days before we turned this over.”
Principal Pat Quinn said the school wouldn’t have opened if it weren’t for all the help from staff and parents when they got the green light to enter it on Aug. 30.
“There was still a lot of construction happening, so we were in early but the teachers had access to the rooms quite late”, said Quinn.
“It was a really busy weekend and parents were in here to help us, we had 40 to 50 parents everyday over Saturday, Sunday and Monday”.
Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says there are currently 70 schools in the province in various stages of completion, and she knows more are needed.
“I’m starting to see that it’s everywhere in Alberta, obviously there’s certain pockets, hotspots, but communities are thriving, we have approximately 15,000 new school students entering the school system this year,” said LaGrange.
St. Veronica School’s current capacity is 750, and it’s already looking to expand next year to add Grade 7 students.
