Paul Kane alumni have one last chance to say goodbye to their old high school this Wednesday before the building closes its doors for good.
Hundreds of student and teacher alumni will be at Paul Kane High School Wednesday Nov. 23 as part of the school’s One Last Look event, which aims to give people a chance to say goodbye to the current school building before it closes at the end of this year. Students are scheduled to move to the new Paul Kane building next door this January.
“It’s a really emotional time for people,” said Paul Kane assistant principal Colleen Anderson, and the school wants to give community members a way to process those feelings.
Anderson said the event will feature speeches, food, and guided tours of the school building. Guests will get to leave farewell messages on a chalk wall and check out (and buy) vintage yearbooks and class pins from throughout the school’s history. Students will be playing classic tunes in the halls, and have prepared an exhibit of about 130 paintings depicting different aspects of the school.
Moving on
Paul Kane was the first Protestant high school in St. Albert when it opened in 1963, Black Robe’s Vision reports. Originally based out of what is now Lorne Akins Junior High, the school’s students walked their textbooks and supplies across the field to the current building on Cunningham Road on March 2, 1973.
Anderson said it was “organized chaos” at the school right now as teachers pack up items for transport to the new building, with movers hauling boxes of material over to the new place every Monday. Guests at the school Wednesday might spot some of those boxes stacked in the halls.
Chemistry teacher Michael Ng said he has spent many months boxing up his room, which for years was covered with posters and crammed with superhero-related props. Now, it looks positively barren, with its many Batman and Spider-Man action figures either taken home or given away to students.
“I’ve been in this room my whole career,” Ng said, but he is looking forward to having windows to the outside world at the new school.
Physics teacher Dave Regimbald said he had a lot of heavy equipment to move over to the new school, such as his Van de Graaff generator. He already missed the presence of his classroom’s posters, many of which had been on the walls for decades.
“When I first came here, we were using chalkboards,” he said, adding those were supplanted by whiteboards, smartboards, document cameras, and now iPads.
Regimbald said he had a lot of memories of the current school, particularly its rugby games and those egg-drop experiments in the lounge.
“What happened in the building, to me, is more important than the building itself.”
Anderson said students will have their last day in the current building on Dec. 16, as they will spend the week before Christmas learning online to give crews time to complete the move. The new building is set to open Jan. 9.
The One Last Look event runs from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Nov. 23. Call 780-459-4405 for details.
