VIDEO – School district officials say they are happy that with the community response at the Westview Elementary School open house. Just over 1,100 people came through the main doors on Tuesday, August 27.
School principal Jamie Burt said that while the open house was to run from 3 to 8 pm, he had people show up at 2:30. More than 600 visitors had already come to have a look around by 5 pm.
Burt was busy, not being able to take more than a few steps down the hall without stopping to speak with students or their families.
“So far the reaction has been exactly what you’d want it to be,” said Burt. “People are just blown away.”
Powell River Board of Education Trustee Doug Skinner said he spent about an hour at the open house wandering around the building, talking to the visitors. Most people he chatted with “were really impressed with the building.” He added that one of the things that stuck out for him talking to students was the incredible sense of pride that they already have about going to the school.
Grade seven students were stationed throughout the school to to answer questions and direct the visitors.
“It’s going exactly the way we wanted it,” said Burt. “If we had gotten into giving guided tours it would have been too difficult. This way people can spend as much time as they want where they want.”
The staff at Westview began unpacking in July, but over the last two weeks Burt said that everyone has worked hard to pull the school together.
“We’ve spent quite a bit of time already, but there’s still a lot of things that need to get done,” he said.
Burt said he was pleased that the facility was starting to feel more like a school.
“In my experience you can almost tell what a school is going to be like the minute you walk in the front door,” he said. “It’s that feeling.”
Burt said that his goal is to try to recreate the welcoming feeling that existed at Grief Point Elementary School and from speaking to people visiting he has nothing to worry about.
Kim Leach is a parent of two Westview students and teaches English at Brooks Secondary School.
“It’d be nice to teach here,” said Leach. “It’s very welcoming and you feel good when you come inside. It’s not just some rectangular box like old fashioned schools.”
Although this visit was not Leach’s first visit to the new school, it was the first time she was able to take her time to walk around and take in the whole building.
“I love it,” she added. “It’s open, airy, light and cheerful.”
Leach said she particularly likes the school’s full-sized gymnasium, a sentiment shared by many at the open house event.
The gym is approximately the same size as the one at Brooks, minus the area for the bleachers, she said. It features a retractable divider curtain, a stage for performances, full-sized basketball courts and storage space for sports equipment.
“I think we did a really good job on that gymnasium,” said Skinner. “We decided to build a larger gym because we realized that the community of Westview did not have a large gym. We knew that in order to run major provincial competitions we needed to have two large gyms, but we also knew that we wanted it to be a community gym.”
Community sports teams will be able to book the gym which has its own outside entrance and separate showers and washrooms.
While Leach said she thought the building inside is beautiful, she was concerned about how close the play area was to the parking lot.
Many people at the event commented on the level of attention that had gone into making the school more accessible for small children. In the school’s main office, the countertop for the window where students go to speak with the secretary has been lowered so that kindergarten and grade one students can see.
“You can see that the lower wing is primary,” said Skinner. “Just going into the bathrooms you can see that everything has been designed for younger people.”
Sinks and countertops in their classrooms are also lower and the bathrooms have smaller sized toilets. All the classrooms on the ground floor have outdoor access.
The school features 12 classrooms for grades one through seven and two kindergarten classrooms with their own washrooms and in-floor radiant heating. Kindergarten classrooms have doors which connect with their own outdoor play area. Next to the kindergarten classrooms are two play-based early learning rooms.
Two multi-purpose rooms will house the school’s band and art programs with an attached kiln room. The learning commons room, also known as a library, is designed so that teachers can easily move furniture around to fit a class’s need.
Outside, the school has full soccer fields, a ball hockey and basketball court with a smooth playing surface and covered bike rack area. The school’s playground area includes a rubber shock-absorbing surface, built from egg cartons and recycled tires, which is designed to reduce the amount of dirt tracked into the school.
A 700-metre level walking path with exercise stations was built as a response to the outpouring of community concern from neighbourhood walkers who had used the old track at Gordon Park field.
“We’ve heard lots of good comments about the path and that there’s a lot of people already using it,” said Skinner.
Westview teachers were on hand for the open house in their classroom greeting students and chatting with parents. Richard Olfert, who has previously taught music at Grief Point Elementary, will be one of two grade-three teachers at Westview this year.
“I’d bet that this school is in the top 10 of nicest schools in the province,” said Olfert.
He was a member of the committee that helped to make recommendations about what features the new school should include. Before the architect and the contractor were selected the committee visited about a dozen schools in the Vancouver and Victoria areas.
“We made a wish list of all the best things we saw from all those schools. I think they’ve incorporated as many of those as possible and this school is better than any of those we saw.”
Olfert added that he thought the architects had captured “a nice West Coast feel.”
“There’s lots of natural wood and ocean views from three sides of the school,” he said.
Skinner echoed Olfert’s sentiments, “I think we can call it the best elementary school in the province.”
