Olds Site Visit (Olds, Alberta)

On October 26th, the Steering Committee visited Olds Secondary School, in Olds Alberta. This High School is being built in conjunction with Olds College and they hope to have it completed by January 2010. The total cost for the project is 70 million dollars including the college portion. The high school features grades 9 to 12 with a total of 600 students and the principal is Tom Christianson.

The school features tables, chairs, and desks that were all on coasters making for easy movement, with student desks wider than most. All the classrooms had WiFi throughout and all featured a Smart Board, FM with 4 speaker sound, blue ray disc player and a podium on wheels. The school has developed a partnership with SMART to help with the introduction of technology in the classrooms. The campus is shared the college so the design of the high school is much like a University Campuswith three buildings for the high school. The Fine Arts/Media Center is the first building we saw and it is extremely impressive. It contains a Theatre with a capacity for 390 and has room for additional chairs. The school did fundraising for this theatre by selling plaques on the arms of the chairs and managed to raise $180, 000. The art room has large wide doors for moving things in and out, and the art teacher teaches the cosmetology class which was a part of the theatre. One day a week, they open the cosmetology room to the public.

In the main building, there is a social services wing. Community services came in with funds to incorporate space within the building (7 million), and this provides one stop services. Alberta Health Services are also located in this building. The counselling area is impressive because it contains the high school counselors, college counselors, Alberta Employment Counsellors, and a Career Library. The gym is a triple gym with dividers to make 3 smaller ones. There is also a weight room complex upstairs overlooking the gym complex and an indoor running track that goes around the upper part of the gym and it is 340 meters in diameter. The gym has a large room with a washer/dryer and storage for uniforms as well as a Referees room. There are 2 Green roofs in the main building where plants are grown. The science room had only gas at the fume hoods and the room was designed in a Super Lab format. The main office had a large conference room with a Staff room that adjoins.

The last building was the ELearning Facility which contains video conferencing that is State of the Art. Each E Learning Area has a Crestron control panel and an Extron Control Panel with one room being entirely white board. This facility also contains a Broadcast Media/Film Room.

The school is built around 3 pillars - Health and Wellness, Fine Arts, and Technology. Some of the features that we had questions about included quad areas that featured sink, fridge, TV, microwave all for students. There was a teacher prep area in the hub of the quads and this whole space was created in lieu of lockers. The lockers were in coves and there were 4 of these throughout the school. Despite being beside the largest Agriculture College in the Country, there were no formal Agrictulture courses being taught in the school.

To see more photos of Olds High School, click here.