THE NEW SCHOOL'S bright, airy hallways are a sharp contrast to the original Skeena Junior High. Here, Skeena’s new principal, Dave Bartley (centre) is flanked by another new face to the school, vice principal Dave Crawley, left. They join school district superintendent Randy Smallbrugge, who is pictured on the right, as they pause to take in the view on the second floor. HANDSOME SUPPORT beams made from B.C. wood soar above the school’s wide, open hallways, reaching to the skylight-dotied roof. There are so many windows and skylights, natural light will spill into classrooms and offices on the darkest day. The new school is... cool Take a tour of Terrace’s newest school, Skeena Junior Secondary, opening Tuesday — on time and on budget Bydl JENNIFER LANG. ‘WHEN TERRACE’S long- -aWalted. replacement ju- nior high finally opens its doors Tuesday, there will be a lot of students looking up. Waay up. The first thing that will strike them is the light. Soft, natural light floating down from skylights loca- ted high in the ceiling above. _As,jthey explore, , the ; wide. corridors, -<check out. their lockers (as promised, too small.to stuff hapless Grade 8s into), or take a seat inside.their homeroom classroom, theyll come.to a remarkable conclusion, Practically . the only thing this Skeena Junior Secondary shares in com- mon. with its 50-year-old predecessor is its name. “You come in and look up, and you see the sky,” superintendent of schools Randy Smallbrugge said. “It's great, It’s a beautiful school.” The notoriously dark and cramped original, torn down this stummer, was lo- cated about where the new school’s 130-spot parking lot and drop off loop are now. “The kids are going to enjoy it. It’s a great asset to the community,” he said. -Inside, the building so new, the unmistakable scent of. latex paint hangs in the air. Other last-min- ute touches, like installing flooring tiles, were still - taking place last week, as _crews worked to complete the $11,8-million project, which started 18 months ago. Plastic packaging ma- terial still covered the clocks hanging in class- rooms, where mountains of moving boxes waited to be unpacked. Students arriving on Tuesday will have several ,, big adjustments: to, make a around a new school or memorizing their new locker combination, They’ll have to break in a new principal and vice principal, get used to a four-day week - and the semester system, noted Dave Bartley, who was named principal of Skeena over the summer. “There are some big changes,” he said, adding he’s confident the new building signals a positive new direction for Skeena. Bartley says the school’s multipurpose room, located next to the gym and school canteen, will play a key role in bringing the school toge- ther. Students will be able to eat their lunches on fold- ing tables. A large glass wall permits easy viewing of any gym activities. “I think it’s going to be important for school culture,” Bartley said. “Kids like to be together. They didn’t have that in the old schaal.” besides finding their way: \/ %¢ _Story and photos by Jennifer Lang ~ “He also pointed to the light-filled halls and invit- ing classrooms. “[ think the brightness is going to have a remark- able impact on our stu- dents and staff.” There are some note- worthy extras that will go a long way toward making the building feel like home. There’s one display _Gase for every two class- rooms, ‘showcase their latest’ pro- so ‘students: can jects. “There’s lighting and everything for every dis- play case — it’s really super,” vice principal Dave Crawley smiled as he toured the school last week. An open house is plan- ned so members of the public can tour the new school. It has fewer regular classrooms than the origi- nal Skeena did because it’s built for less students - 650. Each regular classroom has two black boards, two white boards, a bank of bookshelves, a storage ca- binet for the teacher, and will have a TV and VCR mounted on the wall. There’s also a tele- phone in each classroom, a safety measure that’s now standard, With features like a 58- seal drama theatre with a screening booth ard chan- ging rooms, separate wrestling and weight rooms, and a dance room with springy hardwood floors, Skeena is bound to be the envy of the rest of the district. The acousti- cally-designed band room has plenty of rehearsal space. There are also two sci- ence. labs, a sewing room, a culinary arts lab, a spa- cious art room, meta! work shop and woodworking shop, in addition to prep ' roomis for teachers. , ; school has two computer labs; one lab is_ The equipped with 30 new cranberry-coloured iMacs. The whole community can take pride in the new school, says principal Bartley, who says it's opening Tuesday close to capacity, with 620 student registrations as of last week, and more on their way. School district officials are confident the project will meet its Aug. 30 com- pletion date. The school was still a construction site last week under the possession of the general contractor, Swag- ger Construction. Letters of commissioning from en- gineers and final inspec- tions by the fire depart- ment and the city still had to be secured. A building inspection is expected today. The $11.8 million price- tag covered everything from site preparation, de- molishing the old school, which was located on the THE VIEW of the school library from the upstairs ‘teacher's lounge. Boxes filled with items from the first Skeena Junior, demolished this summer, await unpacking. same property, to building - the new junior high... “We're actually bang: on budget -— and bang on time if they finish next Friday,” project architect Tim Evans said, adding the contractor will hand over the keys to the school district this Friday. Evans said the school will be a showcase for other school districts in the region, but it’s not comm- pletely unique. His firm Grant Sinclair works on three to four schools each year in B.C, — all built with a “similar funkiness”, he said. Skeena's teachers had a lot of input into the design, offering ‘specific sugges- tions on what features they wanted included in the building plans. “I fed off their initial requests,” he said. DAVE CRAWLEY, Skeena's new vice principal, in- side the new drama room, a 58-seat theatre with a projection booth and change rooms. THE SCHOOL has a full range of athletic facilities, including this dance studio on the main floor. There's also a weight roorn, a wrestling room, and gym. ROWS OF brand-new desks line up in the corner of a reguiar classroom. Each classroom is equipped with two black boards, two white boards, a book case and large cabinet for the teacher. TVs and VCRs will be mounted on the walls.