Paul Kane students will get to check out a giant gym and ginormous science lab next month, as their new school building officially opens its doors.
Paul Kane students are learning from home from Dec. 19 to 23 so workers can finish moving furniture from their old school building to their new one next door. Under construction since September 2020, the new Paul Kane building is nearly complete and set to open in early 2023.
Paul Kane principal Erin Steele gave The Gazette a tour of the $50 million, 1,500-student building on Dec. 15.
“The school is built in three sections,” he explained, with foods and fashion labs to the west, construction and cosmetology to the east, and the gym and learning commons in the middle.
The school itself is built to LEED Silver standards and includes many environmental features such as solar panels, motion-activated classroom lights, and a built-in recycling centre, the St. Albert Public Schools website reported. The building is projected to use 43 per cent less water and 40 per cent less energy than its predecessor.
Bigger and brighter
If the old Paul Kane was small, dark, and crowded, the new one is big, bright, and open, with plenty of space, windows, and Paul Kane blues-and-whites wherever you look.
“We have a lot more space for traffic in the hallways,” Steele said. The lockers are recessed into the walls to add more room.
The school’s front doors open into a two-storey open area containing the cafeteria, learning commons, and various tables and chairs. Large windows let you see clear through the other side of the building, Steele noted.
The cafeteria features a very large kitchen designed to help students earn credits as apprentice chefs, Steele said.
“It’s a state-of-the-art kitchen that would rival any top restaurant’s,” he said.
The kitchen has an open-concept design so customers can see student chefs at work, said Keno Matthews, a contractor with Key Food Equipment Services installing equipment in the kitchen. Students will get to use top-notch equipment, including a car-sized programmable oven.
“You can cook, bake, steam. There’s nothing this kitchen won’t be able to produce,” Matthews said.
To the right of the cafeteria is a spiral staircase which wraps around a teepee-like structure containing a round learning space. Steele said this room is meant to bring Indigenous culture and teachings into the school, and can be used for drumming circles, talks, and smudges.
Fitness, food, science
The school’s fitness room awaits at the top of the spiral stair. Twice the size of the old one, the fitness room is divided into cardio and weight-training halves, and features Smart Glass windows which turn opaque at the push of a button for privacy.
The fitness room overlooks the gym, which features bleachers, a video wall, and a sound system.
“It’s three times the size of the current big gym,” Steele said, and will let the school host major tournaments for the first time.
Next to the gym is the music room. Hit a switch, and one of the walls retracts into the ceiling, opening the room to the common area on the other side to create a 60-person auditorium, Steele said.
Next to the music room is the drama room, which has bleachers for 275 people and a control room for lights and sound.
“We can host all our musical theatre and drama productions in-house now,” Steele said. There will be no more need to rent out the Arden.
Back on the second floor near the fitness room is the PK Café — a student-staffed Starbucks-esque eatery where people can get a bite to eat when the cafeteria is closed. Cappuccinos, smoothies, soups, sandwiches, and muffins will be on the menu, as is a great view of the neighbourhood, Steele said.
Also on the second floor are the school’s two science labs, which can be combined into one mega-lab by raising the garage-door walls between them. The labs come equipped with mobile vent hoods (think a robot arm with a plunger on the end) which fold up into the ceiling when not in use.
Steele said these dedicated labs will cut down on setup time for experiments (currently done in classrooms) and give students a university-level lab experience.
A nearby biology lab houses the school’s greenhouse, which Steele said will grow vegetables for the cafeteria as part of a new Botanical Sciences class.
The new Paul Kane opens Jan. 9, 2023.
