EDMONTON – Twelve high school students from the Edmonton Catholic School District are building six modular classrooms for some of their younger peers.
“We have a number of modulars that we needed for this upcoming year,” explained Catherine Nissen, the assistant superintendent of facility services.
“The province of Alberta is putting out modulars for the whole province and so … in order to get the 44 that we had initially requested, we knew that it was going to be a challenge. We felt that if we could begin, and built our own, we would be further ahead.”
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Like many Edmonton schools, Monsignor William Irwin Elementary School is struggling to manage very full classrooms; school utilization is more than 100 per cent.
“The province is bursting at the seams,” said Nissen, “and, like every other school district in the province, we need some extra space.”
She said the province supplied them with 16 modular classrooms, but that the district could help the government by tackling this project as well, by having Grade 11 and 12 students at St. Joseph and Holy Trinity high schools chip in.
“We felt that we could stay ahead of our own population burst by making sure we were building some as well, and helping out.”
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Edmonton Catholic is the first school district in the province to tackle such a project. Nissen said the idea came from the district’s superintendent as well as the deputy minister of education.
The high school students will help build six portables for the Terwillegar Towne elementary school.
Each high school student will receive 15 credits for the project. They will work in shifts; from either 8 a.m. to noon, or noon to 4 p.m. each day.
“I’ve always loved construction,” said Richard Carew, a Grade 12 St. Joseph High School student, “and here I am; I’m on a job site working on classroom portables.”
“Being outside, in the work environment, is ten times better than being inside just looking at it, reading about it,” he explained.
“It’ll help me in the future by having the job experience.”
Students who were selected to take part demonstrated an interest in the project and are in either a registered apprenticeship or work study program.
“Hands-on, onsite work is what the program is all about,” said Nissen, “and we really hope that we can get the students in this case exposed to five or six different trades.”
There is a foreman onsite at all times to answer questions, help students, and ensure work is being done accurately.
“I’ve learned a lot and they’ve learned a lot,” said Joren Blom, who acts as a liaison between the students and contractors.
“It’s a good opportunity for them to learn how to work really hard.”
Construction on all modular classrooms is scheduled to be complete by May.
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