The Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales (CSDCAB) is getting a new gymnasium and a stage.
The new facilities are being built at École Secondaire Catholique de La Vérendrye (ÉSC de La Vérendrye).
“For this extension, we are building onto our existing physical education area because it does include a secondary (school) regulation gym and a storage room, as well as a weight room,” explained Vice-Principal, Sarah Ouellette. “So the new project is going to extend upon that. It’s going to make a weight room that is accessible to both sides, a larger storage room because for an extra gym, we’re going to need more space to put resources as well as a large stage and a regulation elementary size gym.”
The school board and the Ministry of Education are funding the project which is coming with a price tag of $5,306,509.
“The school right now is an elementary and high school so we are École Secondaire Catholique de La Vérendrye as well as École Catholique de La Vérendrye,” explained Ouellette. “This is two schools because we are a grade seven to 12 school, but we do operate as one, however, we do have to run two distinct programs (due to different curriculums).”
The new gymnasium will mainly be used by the school’s grade seven and eight students.
“We have so many elementary students and so many high school students, more than we had when the school was built, trying to balance the specific needs between what the elementary curriculum requires, which is physical activity every day and making sure that our high school students are able to use the gym knowing that Grade 9 has a mandatory gym credit means that we’re only usually able to open one extra physical education credit a year,” said Ouellette.
“So for grades 10 through 12, there’s only one course, and so usually that ends up being one course per semester. This gym, while it is for the seven and eights especially will also serve to open more physical education courses for grades nine to grade 12.”
Currently, the student population of the schools is 220.
Athletics is not the only area that will see the benefits of the new facility as a stage is being built as well.
Currently, there is a stage in the school cafeteria, but there is a need for more space.
“We do have a stage at the moment, however, the plan is for that space to become cafeteria space as well, so we can have all of our students in one lunch room at once.”We can’t fit everyone in the cafeteria for a presentation, so whenever we have an event or a show, we have to have it split between high school and elementary school and we’d like to be able to share those moments as a whole School community.”
Students aren’t the only ones who are going to see the benefit of this facility expansion as the school also serves as a home for other community organizations.
Currently, the school is home to a few pickleball leagues, as well as a few community basketball and volleyball organizations.
“We consider ourselves to be a community school. We’re open to the community as much as needed usually, and so at the moment, just because of how many athletic programs we run in-house, the requirements for those programs, especially when we start getting into like senior athletics, that means that our calendars become quite constrained and we’ve had a lot of trouble, ensuring that we’re as open to the community as we’d like to be, while still making sure our students have access to the appropriate time.”
“So bigger for the school, but also bigger for the community, because by opening a smaller gym and by having an extra space, it’s more space that we can give back.”
The CSDC des Aurores boréales will launch a call for tenders to hire a contractor to execute the project, which is expected to be completed by the winter of 2026.
