Private school building new gym, high school is next
Immanuel Christian School in Charlottetown is hoping to capitalize on demand for gym space in the capital city.
The school is finishing construction on a new $300,000 gym to open in November and it's hoping to rent out the space to local community groups to help pay the cost of the renovations.
Community interest
"I've been surprised, there's quite a bit of interest in the community, gym space seems to be at a premium," said principal Rob MacDonald.
"Local high schools who are hosting a tournament and want to have some more space to have games but there's a lot of community sports groups for baseball, badminton, volleyball, basketball that have spring leagues and camps and stuff like that."
MacDonald took over as principal this year, after more than two decades at nearby Colonel Gray High School, and says the new gym will be roughly the same as that school's. The floor is poured, electricians, plumbers and painters are on site, and the basketball nets should be up soon.
It's exciting for the school's 115 students who have had outdoor phys-ed class for the last year. Before they moved to their present location, the school was located at Spring Park United Church, which had a small gym.
Students excited
"There wasn't much to do there but now since we got this new gym hopefully we're going to get some basketball nets in there so we can play in the winter," said 12-year-old Matthew Calder.
"I think it's great because we've been having gym outside — and that's awesome but having a gym is even better," said Gracie Frew, 12.
The cost of the gym will be paid in part by partners who have each made a $5,000 donation to the project, with a bridge loan to cover the rest, which will then be paid for by the rentals.
Immanuel Christian moved into the former Kent Building Supplies on Allen Street in 2015. Phase one of the project was construction of the classroom space, and cost $1.5 million, mostly raised from the school community.
As well as the gym expansion, a new music room is in the works.
New high school
Later this fall, work will start on another expansion — adding a space for high school students from Grades 10-12, which will cost another $200,000 to $250,000.
Instead of six separate rooms in the new space, plans are for one large classroom.
"Where we have carpets on the floor and round tables and comfy chairs and stools and stuff where our kids can work in small groups, where the learning is all student-directed and student-focused," explained MacDonald.
Moving to the new location has helped the school to grow. Enrolment is up by 15 students this year.
"It felt like we were boxed in a little bit in our previous location. We just didn't have room to expand. We had families on a waiting list. We were capped around 100 students for several years," said MacDonald.
"Word has been getting around, a lot of our new families come from word of mouth and so we're able to take in a lot more students and also have this room to expand into the high school area in the future," he added.
"I think it's awesome because I want to go to high school here. It's awesome here," said Frew.
The new gym will be ready sometime in November, with plans for a grand opening.
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