Looking back at the opening of YRHS in 1967

The Yorkton Regional High School opened on November 10, 1967.
The $5 million school had its own dedicated section in the Yorkton Enterprise to celebrate the grand opening of the facility. Everything from the electrical backbone of the school to the different facilities and programs that it offered were highlighted in the section, with the school’s library, theatre and language labs being given as examples of where the school was on the cutting edge at the time.
The building offered 46 classrooms and labs, offering academic, technical vocational, business education, pre-employment and adult education. The long range plans for the school projected an eventual enrolment of 2,000 students. The goal was to give those students a wide range of opportunities, whether that student was preparing for a university career or one in a trade.
The contract for the electrical system in the school was claimed to be the largest awarded in Saskatchewan in 1965. That electrical system also had complications due to timing, with issues coming from an unexpected source. Montreal hosting Expo ‘67 meant that electrical component manufacturers in Canada had their capabilities stretched to the limit, making it difficult for the local electricians trying to get YRHS wired up to actually get parts.
One example of the part problem was when 15 tons of unassembled switchgear arrived at the school a mere week before the scheduled opening. In spite of this, the school opened with light and power.
The school was the first of its kind in the province, which meant that actually building the school was more complicated than it would have been otherwise. The details were finally worked out between all levels of government in 1965, and the ground was broken in November of that year.
While the focus was naturally on the teenagers who would be walking through the doors of YRHS, the Enterprise was also quick to note that there would be night classes for adults, with approximately 500 signing up.
The school was designed as a community building as well as a educational facility, and that use continues to this day. That usage also influenced its design, with areas of the school able to be locked off if necessary, so that the community could use the Anne Portnuff Theatre, for example without straying into any classrooms.
The very existence of YRHS was credited to one particular man. The Enterprise gave credit to A. R. (Reg) Ball as the man who spearheaded the facility. The genesis of the new school was the Columbia Report, commissioned in 1963, which lead to major changes in the way schools in Yorkton were administered – as well as advising that the education system should have programming for all students, not just those preparing for a university career.  
Ball himself, in a speech at the grand opening, gave credit to the cooperation between a number of different people.
“This school is the result of co-operative planning by both teachers and trustees, whose common interest was to provide a better educational environment for teachers and students,” said Ball.
The school has changed over 50 years as the needs of students and the progress of technology has changed what programs are on offer and what students can study. The people who opened YRHS in 1967 would not have predicted the school’s successful robotics program, for example, while an advertisement for Yorkton Stationary shows that what was once regarded as “equipment for the future” – typewriters, which they supplied to the new school – are unlikely to find a place in any modern educational facility.