Six years ago, Dale Karpluk called Robin Campbell, the then newly elected MLA for West Yellowhead, and said she had something to show him.
“I think I was MLA for about two weeks and I was still going through the book, ‘MLA for Dummies’ to find out what my job meant,” joked Campbell during the grand opening of the brand new joint school facility on Bonhomme Street. “She said, ‘you gotta come and see me.’
“And in her warm and cuddly way, as Dale is, she took me through the school and said, ‘we need a new high school in Jasper; that’s your No. 1 priority.’
“Six years later, we’re here and you have a new school here in Jasper,” said Campbell, thanking Karpluk, who has since retired as principal of Jasper Junior/Senior High School.
Campbell was one of many dignitaries to speak during the official opening of the school, Sept. 26, applauding the efforts of both the Grande Yellowhead Public School Division and Conseil Scolaire Centre-Nord for working collaboratively toward the creation of the joint school—which houses both Jasper Junior/Senior High School and École Desrochers.
“It is wonderful to see the product of collaboration between the Francophone and Anglophone school boards and what a great facility they’ve come up with,” said Coun. Brian Nesbitt. “This is a perfect example for our youth to show what working together can help us accomplish.”
Part of the collaboration between the two schools included hammering out 13 founding principles to inform their joint operating and educational agreement. Those principles speak to identity, equal partnership, collaboration, autonomy, organizational integrity, flexibility, cooperation, access, environmental sustainability and 21st century learning.
“Now we have the challenge of operating this facility that’s like no other, where students and staff of two schools benefit from a host of educational and social and recreational opportunities made possible by sharing, sharing, sharing,” said Karen Doucet, president of Conseil Scolaire Centre-Nord.
In 2011, the provincial government announced that it would invest $550 million in schools around the province, including a new school for Jasper. Construction of the building began in 2012 and two years later, students entered the building for their first day of school, Sept. 2, to discover a facility full of personalized features.
Among other things, there’s a living wall, a music room that opens to the grand staircase, as well as the gym, outdoor classroom spaces, a room dedicated to recycling, smart water fountains that tell students how many plastic bottles they’ve saved by filling up a reusable water bottle, a roof designed for future solar panels and a library with two-storey windows that showcase spectacular mountain views.
“The list goes on and on,” said Jasper Junior/Senior High School principal Mark Crozier, of the school’s features. “In fact, I would argue that this building is now one of the nicest structures visually and functionally in Jasper, and I would even go on to argue in all of Yellowhead County, perhaps.”
Campbell agreed, noting that other communities will base their schools on Jasper’s model for years to come.
“I can tell you, there is no building like this in Alberta,” he said.
Nicole Veerman
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