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Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS – École Whitehorse Elementary School has dominated this block between Fourth and Third avenues for more than 70 years. Its current role will end in several years, it was announced last Friday.

Satisfaction, sentimentality greet school’s fate

The chair of the École Whitehorse Elementary School Council says she has some very mixed emotions when it comes to the Yukon government’s plans to build a new facility to replace it.

By Tim Giilck on June 10, 2022

The chair of the École Whitehorse Elementary School Council says she has some very mixed emotions when it comes to the Yukon government’s plans to build a new facility to replace it.

Laura Lang spoke to the Star Wednesday about last Friday’s announcement that a replacement school will be built in the Takhini neighbourhood at some point.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said of the plan. “It’s been many years of seeking solutions, and this is at least a modest success. It’s a good potential solution.”

Lang made it clear that she, the council, parents and Whitehorse residents in general would prefer to see the school remain in a downtown location, but that’s not a viable option.

“My husband’s family all went to Whitehorse Elementary School,” she said. “It’s part of the heartbeat of the downtown. Ideally, we’d be downtown.

“It’s with immense mixed emotions that we (look at this plan),” Lang added. “Parents are certainly concerned about it not being downtown, but this is the next-best option.”

The council has been working with the government for some time to find a way to keep the school in the city’s core, but there is no land set aside for a new school.

The site of the current school isn’t large enough to build a new facility while simultaneously keeping the existing École Whitehorse Elementary open, according to government officials.

Lang agreed with that, and said officials had looked at potentially buying nearby properties to enlarge the footprint, but that wasn’t a practical nor timely option either.

The current school, which is the oldest in Whitehorse at 72 years in age, is still structurally sound, Lang said.

However, it does have certain problems that would be difficult to address through renovations to meet current standards.

One of those problems lies in the washroom facilities. She said there are none on the main floor, which presents problems for some students, particularly those in the early grades.

There are additional plumbing problems due to the age of the school, Lang said, as well as heating and ventilation issues.

The school has approximately 400 students and about 130 staff, making it rather crowded and exacerbating problems with the washrooms.

The gym is not large enough to accommodate the entire school population at one time. Due to that, students are split into two groups for activities and assemblies.

Lang said that makes it difficult to foster a sense of community at the school.

While the council has been working in co-operation with the Yukon government on the concept, Lang said she was informed of the decision at a meeting on the evening of June 2, with the public announcement coming the next morning.

“We’re eager to be a partner in this,” she said. “But it wasn’t a consultation. It was the government informing us of its decision.

“The government can certainly do a better job with its communications,” Lang noted.

As for the future of the existing school, Lang indicated she thought it was well worthy of being declared an historic or heritage site.

She was interested to hear that it currently doesn’t have a designation from the city, nor has it been placed on the registry.

Lang said she’s interested in discovering whether there’s a process to have it declared a significant site.

“It would be wonderful to see it re-purposed as another school at some point,” she said. “We do see it as having heritage value.”

Comments (14)

Up 10 Down 2

Anie on Jun 13, 2022 at 3:23 pm

To "think outside the box". Your proposed solution reeks of common sense, oraticality, and fiscal prudence. Stop it. We no longer allow that sort of thinking in the Yukon.

Up 4 Down 1

@Stupid on Jun 13, 2022 at 12:47 pm

You tell em!
That'll show em.

Up 11 Down 8

Stupid is, as stupid does… on Jun 12, 2022 at 7:56 pm

To @Stupid on Jun 11, 2022 at 8:55 pm:

I don’t see any new school, do you? I am waiting for them to do something so I can comment accordingly. This is a system of absolute waste and ignorance. Certainly they will rationalize any stupid decision to move the school to build their legacy projects… Stop the abuse!

For that matter, the entirety of the roof can be reinforced and turned into a greenhouse operation. The school
could pay for itself. The green space could repair their young, damaged minds to counteract the ill effects caused by so-called advances in technology, too much screen time, to much twitter, Snapchat etc.

You people are causing all sorts of damage to our young people and you don’t even care enough to get involved. Now you are letting them dumb-down the curriculum too… FFS!

FFS! The brainiacs that run things have have mentioned putting the school up on Range Rd… This is absolutely stupid! Monumentally stupid even! But this council is nothing more than a bad reality tv show.

I would like to see the back side of WES added onto. You can leave the bottom floor open as a covered play area - Something like the ship yards park. You could even dig it down. The inside area could start at the 2nd floor and you could expand the gym into it with more classrooms on the outside perimeter. The 3rd and 4th floors could have more classrooms with the rooftop turned into a garden terrace. You can greenhouse it to provide food for the kids.

Below the play area the basement could be turned into a aquaculture venture so the kids can learn about fish while producing food for the community - WES could pay for a large portion of its operating costs.

All mobile devices could be disabled within the school property lines. Free the children from the tyranny of tech… Keep them busy do kid things and quit feeding them to Fart Suckerberg and friends!

Up 1 Down 12

@Stupid on Jun 11, 2022 at 8:55 pm

Yes,
But what do you think of the new school?

Up 5 Down 36

Nathan Living on Jun 11, 2022 at 5:53 pm

Whitehorse Elementary is an ideal site for something along the theme of the Centre of Hope.
Classrooms can be converted to housing and offices converted to alcohol and drug dispensaries, First Aid, supportive policing and safe storage for alcohol and drugs that clients have.

We have to seriously deal with housing and social issues in Whitehorse so it's an obvious choice based upon need.
The NDP are correct in their dogma about safe injection sites and free alcohol and drugs for those people who have addiction problems.

I hope City Council steps forward with a vision for Whitehorse Elementary and an expansion of services in the downtown core for vulnerable people who have a dire need for support from all levels of government.

Maybe we will have to reroute the traffic along 4th to fit the new vision.
Whitehorse Elementary served the community well buts its time to move forward with a modern vision for the downtown core.

Up 9 Down 8

Wilf Carter on Jun 11, 2022 at 3:04 pm

Can any one tell Yukoners what our Yukon Government is doing as far as education goes in the Yukon?

Up 12 Down 25

Stupid is as stupid does! on Jun 11, 2022 at 10:31 am

The absolute irony of Western Ideological Imperialism is that it is premised upon the construction of categorical imperatives to provide some order to its conceptualization of the way human activities should be governed.

This is the delusion of Liberal Democracies. They are inherently arbitrary and dictatorial. This is because the latticework of policy, procedure, laws etc allow for the imposition of cultural constructs to be applied in the absence of actual proof thereof.

No person represents the ideal anything except in Liberal Democracies or other dictatorial regimes with the power to conscript its membership at will. These are always dangerous ideals with imprecise, fuzzy, and subjective, categorizations that are levied against others in propagandized form notwithstanding the FACT that there is greater variation within cultures than there are between cultures…

Yet we are told that these cultures matter. It is a very fascistic, and arbitrary tool that works well in Liberal Democracies. Most people are oblivious to the notion that propaganda works best in Liberal Democracies and that this is the crucible in which Hitler distilled his/her/their propaganda for Nazi Germany…

Fool me once,
Shame on you,
Fool me twice,
Shame on me…

Stop hanging your heads in shame because it is interfering with your ability for clear judgment and decision-making - STOP voting for the Trudeau L-NDP Coalition of Fascistic Endeavours - Reclaim your soul!!!

Up 25 Down 7

JustSayin' on Jun 11, 2022 at 9:08 am

Let's put the new school where the legislature is... it's not like the politicians there do anything to benefit the Yukon, only their self serving interest and/or ego's.

Up 17 Down 10

Think outside the box on Jun 10, 2022 at 10:16 pm

Build the new primary school already planned for Whistle Bend, but then use it as the temporary home for Whitehorse Elementary School and it’s French Immersion program for 2 - 3 years. Raze the old downtown Whitehorse Elementary School and rebuild the new school on that same downtown site. When it’s ready to open, then re-dedícate the Whistle Bend Elementary School to its intended purpose. That allows the new Whitehorse Elementary School, which draws students from all across Whitehorse, to remain downtown like the parents and students prefer.

Up 4 Down 8

No way jose on Jun 10, 2022 at 6:09 pm

Going to build condos and @Al cry me a river.

Up 44 Down 5

yukon56 on Jun 10, 2022 at 4:39 pm

Move it next to the Canada Games Centre. Lots of land there. Never should have built the jail where it is. Prisoners don't deserve the view.

Up 38 Down 4

Ernie Bourassa on Jun 10, 2022 at 4:30 pm

So sad to hear about the plans for this school. I did not attend Whitehorse Elementary but my mother Irma taught there from 1953 to 1965. She's most likely the oldest surviving teacher from that school who still lives in Whitehorse. She has many, many fond memories of her time there and the many students who she had the pleasure of teaching over those many years. Farewell Whitehorse Elementary.

Up 51 Down 24

bonanzajoe on Jun 10, 2022 at 4:10 pm

So, what will the libs turn it into now, a drug injection site? Or another flop house? Might as well, it's right next door to the hopeless centre and only about 3 blocks away from the existing injection site. I say, remove all businesses on 4th Ave. and shut the whole street down for the homeless. Or the new politically correct phrase " our unhoused neighbours".

Up 49 Down 18

Al on Jun 10, 2022 at 3:57 pm

Hm, no consultation. That says it all. Surprised? No! Why would they want to consult? The whole exercise was to make the FN School Board happy. They don't give a rat's behind about the children at WES. This was a done deal, with the ink not even being dry, even before the new Board became an entity.

Please don't treat us as fools. It is so transparent as to be nauseating at minimum. Can't (actually the wording should be won't) build a school to replace Grey Mountain Primary. You know the temporary unit in Riverdale built a very, very long time ago as a short term measure. Oh, that's right FN aren't interested in sending their children there.

The WES lot has likely already been spoken for. You know the back room deals the Liberals are infamous for.
What a waste...

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