New high school approved for Sioux Lookout

The Keewatin Patricia District School Board said it would make a major announcement during a student assembly at the Queen Elizabeth (QE) District High School. Then another snowstorm hit, delaying the long-awaited news.
Finally, on April 2, in a carnival-like atmosphere in the school gymnasium, five QE students took the stage and shared the microphone to tell their peers in dramatic fashion, one word at a time: “We … are … getting … a … new … school!”
To help give those six simple words full impact, they sprayed colourful confetti into the air from handheld cannons, while the song Celebration blared. Students screamed and howled their approval. QE teachers and administrators clapped and cheered almost as loudly, joined by board principals, managers and staff from across the district.
When the fluttering confetti had settled on the floor, a series of speakers provided details about the future school.
Most notably, the Ontario Ministry of Education had agreed to fund its construction, said Bob O’Donahue, a Sioux Lookout trustee on the Keewatin Patricia board.
“The board of trustees has for years had a new school or renovations for this school as a number one priority (for capital projects),” O’Donahue said. “Obviously, the thing that was holding things back was funding, and it has come through.”
The new high school is expected cost more than $30 million, with the Ministry of Education covering $24 million.
QE school was built 61 years ago. Upgrading or replacing it has been considered a board priority for the past 17 years.
After all that time, a spring storm that dropped 55 centimetres of snow on Sioux Lookout from the last Monday of March to April Fool’s Tuesday forced closure of all of the board’s schools in the region and postponement of the new school announcement at QE until Wednesday. It proved a final test of patience for O’Donahue. “Monday I was hoping to climb to the top of Blueberry Hill and shout this out but it would have been impossible to get up that hill (because of the heavy snowfall),” he joked.
“I’m truly excited about today,” O’Donahue said of finally being able to share news of the ministry funding approval he and other senior board officials had known about for three weeks. “It’s been very, very tough keeping this quiet. It’s going to be a state-of-the-art high school … (and) there are going to be tremendous programs offered.”
The school board has already looked at several possible locations for the future school, in consultation with the Town of Sioux Lookout, but hasn’t yet acquired a property.
It won’t be built at the current QE site, said Sean Monteith, the board’s director of education. “We can’t build the building we want on the existing site, with land the that’s available there, and still operate the high school beside it for three years.” That’s how long Monteith predicts it will take for planning and construction of the new 100,000 square foot facility, which would mean students in Grade 9 now could finish high school there.
“Exciting,” Dakota Harper, a Grade 9 QE student from Keewaywin First Nation, said of that prospect.
Harper is one of 480-490 students attending QE. More than 60 per cent of them belong to a First Nation. Of those, 133 students attend QE under tuition agreements with First Nations or their tribal councils.
The new school is being built and funded for 533 students, Monteith said in an interview after the QE assembly. “We’re building a school that is bigger than what we have right now for enrolment because we are anticipating some growth, specifically growth … with more and more students coming from the North,” he explained.
More than a high school
There will also be space allocated in the school for several major partners in the project: Confederation College, Lakehead University, Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, FIREFLY, and Toronto Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids).
Of those partners Confederation College will have the biggest presence, using 7,000 square feet as its Sioux Lookout campus.
“We currently work together in a number of different ways around dual credits, which allow you to start college before you’ve even finished high school,” Jim Madder, president of Confederation College told QE students. “(This) allows us to expand that programming.”
With its new campus, the college will be able to broaden other program offerings in Sioux Lookout as well, he said.
Lakehead University, meanwhile, “is working with us to bring a ‘tele-presence’ … to Sioux Lookout in the new building,” Monteith said, “so that professors at LU can deliver their videoconferencing courses into classrooms.”
Meno Ya Win and FIREFLY will provide students with a range of counselling services, while Sick Kids will offer fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) diagnostic services and supports.
“I am struck by the … opportunity for Sioux Lookout and northern youth who will be privileged to take part in this fresh start,” Rhonda MacRae, who works in the QE guidance office, said of the future school. “Working together with community partners … equates basically to better services for all students – more academic offerings, potential for enormous career exploration and a more cohesive network of academic, social, emotional, cultural and physical care.”
Monteith suggested the partnerships put Keewatin Patricia’s funding application “over the top” with the Ministry of Education. Long-term leases with the partners, 10 to 20 years in duration, will also help fund the new school.
Over several years, the board set aside $4.2 million of its own for the project, further strengthening its proposal to the ministry, Monteith added.
The next 60 years
During the QE assembly to celebrate news of the future school, students Alyssa Wiseman and Drew Dumonski poked fun at the old one. They referred to the outdated “hunk of bricks” sinking into the ground, the hallway having to serve as a cafeteria, an art room and kitchen sharing the same space, and a music room with no soundproofing.
Still, “We can all agree that the imperfections have brought us together,” Wiseman said, for “the best high school experience – academically, athletically and socially.”
The students challenged others in the packed gym to keep that tradition alive.
Nigel Morris of Muskrat Dam First Nation, a Grade 11 student at QE, said he wants his younger brother, still working toward his Grade 8 graduation up north, to someday be part of that tradition as a student of the new school in Sioux Lookout.
“I hope it gives him the benefit of a better education, and for him to have fun with sports or extracurricular activities, or just within the school in general,” he said while standing outside QE with friends after the assembly.
Earlier, strobe lights danced on the walls to music and cheerleaders greeted Morris, other students and community members as they filed into the gym for the big announcement. Students volleyed inflatable balls in the bleachers while they waited.
“It was fun … awesome,” Morris said of the festive atmosphere.
QE principal Steven Poling spoke about the opportunity to plan through the new school project the next 60 years of an “education community” that extends from Sioux Lookout to Lac Seul and north to Fort Severn.
“We are an inclusive school,” he said. “This building will help advance the work of creating an educational experience with caring and unconditional support, creating a sense of belonging for all people and ensuring students see themselves in the school, as graduates and lifelong learners.
“We have a lot of work to do together to make this project a reality,” he added. “Let’s get it started.”