News
KRIS MCDAVID MIRAMICHI LEADER
After months of anticipation and three weather interruptions that delayed the announcement,the incoming King Street elementary school finally has a name - King Street Elementary School.
Sometimes the simpler route is the better route, and that’s clearly the direction Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Brian Kenny went with in choosing that name from a final list of three a local naming committee had whittled down from a long list of submissions.
Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bill Fraser did the honours, pulling back the veil to reveal the $20-million facility’s official moniker.
All of the students from St. Andrew’s Elementary School and Ian Baillie Primary School who crowded into the gymnasium to hear the news firsthand seemed to like the name of their new school just fine, letting out a loud ovation once it was made official.
“It’s an exciting day and you can tell by the enthusiasm of all the excitement from all of the children that are here how excited they are - a lot of the suggestions actually came from the kids,” Fraser said.
“It’s always nice to see new buildings going up in a community because it means prosperity and growth and that is especially true when it comes to a new school.”
The new King Street school will welcome roughly 400 students when it opens its doors in the fall.
The project was the product of years of lobbying from a committee of local parents who had been calling on multiple governments to commit funding toward a new school that would serve as a replacement to St. Andrews, built 1963, and Ian Baillie, which opened way back in 1959.
Ultimately, construction of the school was green-lighted by the Gallant Liberals in late 2014, with construction getting underway last year.
The King Street project is the latest chapter in a period of rapid renewal and consolidation of the city’s education infrastructure.
Over 500 students across the river in the former town of Newcastle moved into the brand new $22-million Max Aitken Academy, a K-8 facility, in January following the closure of Harkins Elementary School, Harkins Middle School and Croft Elementary School.
Another substantial project saw an expansion and enhancement of Gretna Green School in Douglastown from a K-5 into a second K-8 thanks to a $10-million renovation that took place there.
King Street Elementary School will come equipped with most of the amenities expected of a modern school, plus a few extras as well.
Among them, it is expected to be the first school in Canada built using the new LEED v4 standards in green, environmentally sustainable construction practices.
It will also feature a $1.5-million artificial turf soccer field, the first of its kind in the Miramichi region, and will be the permanent home to the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra’s Sistema classical music training program in Miramichi.
The Sistema students, under the tutelage of instructors Carlos Armao, Emily Field and Adora Wong, treated the crowd to a performance during Monday’s announcement, as did members of the St. Andrew’s choir.
The program is a branch of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, and has already helped connect hundreds of New Brunswick children to the type of experience they might not have otherwise had the chance to take part in.
Miramichi’s Sistema class will be adding an additional 20 seats when the program transitions into the new King Street school, raising the total to 50 kids.
The school, meanwhile, will also have 21 classrooms in all, along with specialized music and art rooms, project work areas, a large gymnasium,a multipurpose room and a library.
Construction on the school is being carried out by the firm Marco Maritimes, which also won the contract to build Max Aitken Academy.
Fraser confirmed on Monday that a public tender for the fabrication of the new turf field has now gone out and the expectation is to have the pitch ready by the time the school opens in September.
That side project was done with the help of $500,000 from the city, who backed the project under the expectation that it will help promote physical activity while potentially attracting provincial and Atlantic tournaments that will generate economic spinoffs.
Members of the Building a Future for Our Children committee, who advocated for the project for years and have since been providing input into the design stage, were also on hand.
Committee chair Eileen Bowes said it’s exciting to see the school rapidly taking shape and to think about the kind of role it’s going to play in the community for decades to come.
“It’s a project the community started working on six years ago and it really is a long story,” Bowes said. “But when it comes down to it, you children here today are the reason that it happened - you are the reason the community really wanted this.”
“It’s a project the community started working on six years ago and it really is a long story.” EILEEN BOWES
Construction continues at the new King Street Elementary School in Chatham. The announcement of the school’s new name took place on Monday.
PHOTO: JOCELYN TURNER/MIRAMICHI LEADER
