Organization ready to begin ‘new chapter’ after purchase of school

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/12/2010 (5634 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After nearly 30 years of calling St. James home, the Winnipeg Mennonite Elementary and Middle School is putting down permanent roots in the community.

The private school recently purchased its Bedson Street home from the St. James-Assiniboia School Division. The school, which has operated out of the location for the past 19 years, will officially take ownership of the property Jan. 1, 2011.

“Our destiny is in our hands,” said superintendent and CEO Lawrence Hamm. “The biggest thing is that we’re not working…on a lease that’s five years long. We’re now working on the assumption that we’re here for good.

“We’ve been here for 19 years, we’re going to be here for another 30 years and we’re moving forward.”

The school opened in St. James in 1981 and moved to its current building in 1991. The purchase means peace of mind for the parents of the 250 kindergarten to Grade 8 students who attend the school.

“There was always a question of ‘Is it going to be here next year?’ ” said Joanne Clark, a Silver Heights resident whose son, Jackson, is a Grade 3 student at the school. “I interviewed six schools two years in a row, went to all the open houses and when I came here, the feeling was just almost instant.

“I really want him to stay (here) right through to Grade 8 and I’m hoping it will go to Grade 12 one day,” she said.

While that might not be in the school’s immediate plans, ownership of the building will allow the school to act more quickly on new projects, Hamm said.

“Our relationship with St. James School Division was awesome. Anytime we said ‘This is something we would like to do,’ they were very supportive,” he said.

“(But) there’s always a bureaucratic process you have to go through to do anything. So sometimes things took a little bit of time to get done. Now the bureaucracy lies with us.”

School officials are particularly excited about the fact that purchasing the building will allow them to offer a daycare centre beginning Jan. 10.

The 32-spot daycare will allow the school to expand its reach by filling a void in the area, said principal John Sawatzky.

“We started as a K-6 school, now we’re a K-8 school, so we’ve expanded in the upper end, and this opportunity let’s us expand at the younger end,” Sawatzky said. “We’re excited about the opportunity that gives us to increase our kindergarten uptake in the community and hopefully that will strengthen our whole school throughout the other grades.”

Crestview Park Day Nursery, which operates out of Voyageur School, will run the new daycare.

“It’s just the natural place we should,” said executive director Laurie Lamont. “They build familiarity, they know who the principal is, who the teachers are. They’re starting kindergarten with half the class full of kids they already know.

“It’s a positive experience for children.”

The recent developments mark a milestone in the school’s history, according to Sawatzky.

“I would call it a new chapter,” said Sawatzky. “We’ve shown our commitment to the community for 20 years now and certainly that was never in doubt from our point of view. But it gives us a permanent home and a brand new generation of kids to work with.”
For more information, visit www.wmes.ca.

matt.preprost@canstarnews.com