Spreading sunshine
Clowns show laughter really can be the best medicine Page A3
ARTS: Bachands debut new album for hometown fans /A6 SPORTS: Oak Bay falls in final of Gary Taylor Classic /A7 NEWS: Flu season arrives early on Island /A10
OAK BAYNEWS Friday, December 26, 2014
www.oakbaynews.com
New era set to dawn on Oak Bay High Construction scheduled to be complete this summer on new state-of-the-art school Dan Ebenal News Staff
It has honed the skills of world-class athletes and internationally renowned artists, helped to shape the minds of business leaders and prominent national figures, it has been a place the community turns to in times of celebration and of sorrow. And after being a fixture in Oak Bay for the better part of a century, welcoming upwards of 30,000 students through its doors, the familiar facade of Oak Bay High will be relegated to the history books. Construction continues on the new Oak Bay High slated to usher in its first students next September. And as work wraps up on the $50 million state-of-the-art school this summer, the original 1929 school building and later additions will be torn down, making “You walk through way for the school’s new the front door of this sports fields. “I think it’s going to be school and it’s no shockingly different for a different than when you couple of reasons. First walked in the front door of all, education itself has changed its face so in 1970.” dramatically but schools - Dave Thomson haven’t been able to change their faces,” said principal Dave Thomson, who has been at Oak Bay High for all but four years since 1992. The face of Oak Bay High has changed a few times since it moved to its current site in 1929 from its previous location in what is now the Uplands Golf Course, with major additions tacked on in the 1950s and ’60s, but it still seemed like a history class every time students walked through the front door. “You walk through the front door of this school and it’s no different than when you walked in the front door in 1970,” said Thomson. “The building that we’re in, as much as we all love it – and we do – has so many weaknesses that don’t allow us to be the kinds of educators and produce the kinds of students we should be producing.” The new school will eliminate the need for duplication that is now found in the separate buildings of the school, and the classrooms themselves will be built in pods of three with a flexible wall that will allow for the creation of a larger space. “If you take into account both buildings, [the new
I’m so happy I decided to make Shannon Oaks my home. Everyone here has become family.
Dan Ebenal/News Staff
Principal Dave Thomson keeps a watchful eye on the construction of the new Oak Bay High. The building should be ready to welcome students when the new school year begins in September. school] is probably a little bit smaller in terms of square footage. But the reality is it’s much better organized and efficient. There’s not much efficiency when you have to go back and forth, when you have to have two separate offices and two separate computer systems and telephone systems,” said vice-principal Garrett Brisdon, who has been actively involved in the construction process. “Change orders are much more part of the process now,” said Thomson. “We’re making decisions every day with the architects on what the building’s going to look like. This morning we were talking to a technology teacher about the blank canvas we have in one technology space.” And it won’t just be the look of the building that’s changing, with the new school opening up an opportunity for a more diverse curriculum. School officials are looking at potential new courses in engineering, robotics, electronics and marine biology.
Oak Bay students will welcome a group of students from the Netherlands in the spring to study freshwater biology and work to redesignI’m Bowker TheIlocal studentsto so Creek. happy decided will then head to Holland in the fall. Discussions on replacing school beganOaks two my maketheShannon decades ago when it was learned the building didn’t home. Everyone here has meet seismic codes. Construction started in the summer of 2013 and the school has been a hive of activity for the become family. past 18 months. But the disruption of going to school in a construction zone is offset by the educational value it provides students. “My physics teachers and engineering teachers and technology teachers, for them this is a big-boy sandbox. Everything is happening and you’re watching it happen,” said Thomson. PlEASE SEE: ‘Sympathetic deconstruction’ will save items from old school, Page A6
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