Photo gallery: New VCI will open as a Grade 9-12 facility

Vankleek Hill Collegiate Institute (VCI) will continue to operate as a Grade 9 to Grade 12 facility when its new building opens to students in February 2011, a school board official has confirmed.

The new building, currently under construction, had been designed with the intent of transitioning Grade 7 and 8 students to VCI from a nearby feeder school, but a larger-than-expected current enrolment will prevent that for the time being.

According to Jeremy Hobbs, chief information and facilities officer with the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB), the current enrolment at VCI is about 431 full-time-equivalent students.

"This is somewhat higher than the September 2008 projections from our planning department, but it doesn't represent cause for concern," wrote Hobbs in an e-mail. "[The board is] expecting the enrolment to decline rather steeply over the next five to ten years, thereby 'creating' the necessary space to accommodate Grade 7 and 8 students.

Changing room

"In other words, as we see Grade 9 to 12 enrolment declining over the next few years, we will make the call on the point at which to transition to a 7 to 12 model - with an appropriate change management and communication plan, of course."

A UCDSB press release last month indicated the new facility would accommodate 357 students, a lesser figure than the current enrolment numbers. For that reason, portable classrooms - which have been seen on the construction site - will potentially be in use next February.

Custodian corridor

"The school will indeed accommodate 357 students, although it is important to understand where this number comes from," continued Hobbs. "The Ministry of Education, for the purposes of calculating operating funding, provides a set of 'rules' to determine the capacity of a school. These rules were used to peg the capacity of the school at 357. However, the Capital Programs branch of the Ministry of Education has another set of 'loading rules,' which would put the capacity in the neighbourhood of 380 to 400.

"Therefore, the actual capacity of the school on a practical level will vary across a range according to the logic being applied and most importantly, to the actual program choices of the students and school."

Café and kitchen

The status of the construction is as follows:

• Interior classroom partition walls (steel studs and drywall) have started
• Interior painting has begun (block sealer/primer)
• All mechanical trades have begun
• Roof is watertight and cap sheet 95 per cent complete
• Exterior siding continues
• Masons have a few more interior block walls to complete and will then move outside to finish brick

Music room