If you’ve ever completed a renovation, or been fortunate enough to construct a home from conception to move-in, you know what an all-consuming labour of love it can be; the orientation of every space, every fixture, the allocation of square footage – all of it painstakingly considered and weighed against other aspects or features. This has been our journey for the last 4 years, beginning on January 15th, 2018 when former Education Minister Rob Fleming announced that our well-loved, 60-year-old Handsworth School, would be replaced.
Flash-forward to February 7th, 2022, and opening day of the new school. It’s the first day of Semester 2 of the new school year and, somehow, we’ve actually managed to have our project completed over 7 months ahead of schedule! Instead of moving in, in September of 2022, we were able to start moving and setting up in January – a remarkable feat in of itself.
The past 4 years we’ve had to wear many hats (both literally and figuratively!) as we were able to provide significant input into how the building would be constructed. The Handsworth Design and Input Committee allowed our faculty, staff, students and PAC to have their voices heard. Elements like end-of-trip showers and storage for staff who commute on bikes, to staff prep areas, to purpose-built millwork, storage and technology in classrooms all had significant stakeholder input. We were able to learn much as well from visits to recently constructed schools in the area, including Salish Secondary in Surrey, New West Secondary, and our neighbouring Argyle Secondary here in North Van, as well as post-secondary institutions like BCIT’s Burnaby and Downtown campuses. Thoughtful details like vented, oversized athletics lockers for field-hockey sticks and football equipment, and covered outdoor instructional areas were ideas born out of our consultative process with all our stakeholder groups. We are also so proud to be the first school in the North Vancouver School district to have the local Indigenous rights-holders with their language in the school. Much of the signage in our school has Sḵwx̱wú7mesh language first, followed by English and French.
Handsworth has a proud tradition of excelling not only in academics, but in extra-curricular areas as well, including the performing arts and athletics. Our 300-seat theatre is one of the spaces we’re most proud of, and we continue to work towards outfitting it without compromise with lighting, drapery and seats as part of our widely advertised ‘Take Your Seat’ fundraising campaign. Our band room and dance studio are impressive and modern upgrades on what we had in our old building. Our championship gymnasium was also enhanced to include no less than 12 basketball hoops, allowing games to happen in every conceivable direction, and the strength & conditioning room which supports our PHE classes and extra-curricular athletics, has been furnished with beautiful new fitness equipment.
Our school community has made meaningful strides in recent years to enhance and build out an Inclusive Education department that welcomes students of diverse and exceptional abilities to Handsworth. Throughout the process of the build, our department grew so greatly that we needed to adjust and expand, doubling the size of space allocated to its programs. The result is a wonderfully significant investment in functional spaces for all our students that makes our school even more inclusive and supportive of all learners.
While all of this construction was happening, the day-to-day business of running the school continued unabated. Many weeks would have some days in jeans, safety vests and hard hats, while others it was back to blazers and slacks to take care of the traditional administration of the existing school. There were times it really felt like I had 2 distinctly different jobs! And while I’m certainly not a designer or architect, I got to feel like one along the way as we selected furnishings and re-imagined some of the spaces.
As a school community, we also had to manage, and continue to manage, the absence of a school field or really any outdoor facility for both our PHE classes and athletics teams. Although phase 1 is now finished, we continue to work and learn next to a construction site that is actively decommissioning and demolishing the old school. Our hope in this next phase is to also augment all the great work done in the building with equally impressive exterior amenities like EV charging stations for vehicles, and to work with our community to advocate with the District of North Vancouver to support our aspirations for a turf field for the benefit of our PHE classes and athletics that are both school and community-based.
Like a renovation or building a house, having new is nice. But what makes a house a home is the people. At the heart of everything we’ve done is a focus on making visible everything great that our students and staff do every day, and to forge an even greater sense of identity, built on strong traditions that honour the past but are also looking forward. Light, glass, and collaborative spaces all speak to how we hope students will thrive, collaborate and grow in their new surroundings.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge many of the adult people behind the scenes as well who have helped this project along. We’ve been so fortunate to have a Project Superintendent, Russ, who also happens to be a 2006 Handsworth alumnus. Throughout the project it was really apparent the personal pride he took in the construction. He was incredibly generous with the access he provided us to the site, which was completely above and beyond what typically would have been granted to a project of this size and scope. Our wider Handsworth community rallied around in support as well, from parent involvement in our theatre seat fundraiser, to Len Horvath whose time and expertise has been integral to bringing industry-leading lightening technology to our theatre, to Carol Anne Parkhill who quietly assisted in the background with some of the amazing furniture in the building. Other people who were indispensable along the way were Project Manager Mark Thomson, our Purchasing Officer Annmarie Sharman who helped us procure all our furnishings, and of course our Principal, Rupi Samra-Gynane, who came with a clear vision on how to make this house a home. It’s been such a positive team of professionals to work with.
We hope this new space will offer some fresh inspiration for our students – an opportunity to be excited again about re-connecting and finding a sense of place and belonging, especially as we emerge from the Covid pandemic. We’re able to feel now that our building is a proud reflection of the quality of our school community. And if you haven’t had the opportunity yet, we’re certainly looking forward to welcoming you to our new home!
Education Rumination 