It's done.
The new Humboldt Collegiate Institute (HCI) is ready for occupancy.
Teachers and staff began transitioning to the new building attached to the Humboldt Uniplex this week, while students are writing final exams at the old building.
Next week, when the second semester officially begins on February 1, the students will head to the new building for classes.
Last week, the Journal got a tour of the new school while the final touches were being done to the facility.
New furniture, including desks for students and teachers, had arrived, floors were being waxed, and the Smartboards and digital projectors were being installed in every classroom.
"This is the last thing we do, to ensure they're not damaged," said Don Lloyd of the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division, the project manager for the new HCI, regarding the Smartboard installation.
On the day of the Journal's tour, crews were doing the final checks of the building's systems and controls, installing electronics, and prepping the hardwood gym floor for urethane.
Equipment was being installed in the Industrial Arts lab, and the large dust collection system was being hooked up.
Throughout the school, the phone system was being installed.
But there wasn't much else to be done.
The classrooms, other than the Smartboards, were complete, down to the names of the teachers on plaques near the doors.
New tables had been moved into the student gathering area right inside the main entrance to the building, and new bleachers for the gym were sitting just outside that area, waiting to be installed once the gym floors are finished on February 6, or moved to a storage area.
In the front office, new chairs and desks had arrived; all that was left to finish the spaces were some more desks, files and computers, and the actual people working there.
In the library, shelving was all ready and awaiting the arrival of books, and new tables and chairs were in place, awaiting the arrival of students.
The special needs suite, once a space devoid of everything but drywall and flooring, was complete, with its own kitchen, and its own bathroom, which includes a lift.
The main bathroom suites for the schools were also finished. The new design has the sinks and mirrors right off the hall, with no door blocking off that area. Instead, there's a door to each separate toilet.
It's a new design that is being used in most newly-built schools, Lloyd indicated.
Stepping inside one of the completed classrooms, besides the Smartboard, Lloyd pointed out another little technological addition.
In the corner of the classroom were the main controls for the sound field system that has been installed in every classroom.
The system will be used by teachers, who will speak into microphones on headsets, and by multimedia programming. It will allow every student in the classroom to hear the teacher clearly, without teachers straining their voices, Lloyd explained.
"It's done now," Lloyd said of the school structure. The balancing of the systems was to be finished by Monday, with just a final cleanup left to do.
The gym floor won't be ready for the student move-in date - it's supposed to be ready by February 6, giving its finish a chance to harden before feet start hitting it.
On Monday morning, things inside the school were definitely quieter than they had been the week before. There was only a handful of workers, finishing up final details. But HCI principal Keith Thompson was there, doing a final walk-through of the building, making notes of things that still need to be done, and furniture that needs to be ordered.
Thompson said he's looking forward to mid-September, when not only are they fully moved into the school, all the planning for the programs they can offer with the new facility will be done.
"We want to make sure the programming matches the facility we have," he said.
For instance, they are looking at a hockey program for next year, due to their now close proximity to the arena in the Uniplex.
For right now, students and staff of HCI are excited about the move, he claimed.
"It will be long days for the staff, to make this school their own," Thompson said of this week, but there is a "general excitement and enthusiasm about being able to get in here and make it their own."
The students, for their part, have been asking questions all the time about the new school. Some with connections to the trades have even been able to tell him things, Thompson smiled.
"There's no hiding what goes on here," he laughed. "We're still a small town."
Thompson chooses to call their move into the new school a "transition," as not a lot of furniture will be coming over from the old building. Teachers will be bringing their materials, but desks and other items will remain in the old school .
"Our budget from the Ministry (of Education) has allowed us to really furnish this school the way it should be," Thompson said.
Looking around, Thompson was happy with what he was seeing.
"It's a beautiful facility that will serve the community well for the next 40 years or so," he said.
There is one part of the new school structure that is still a construction zone. The Carlton Trail Regional College wing of the school is still unfinished. Crews were installing floors and ceiling tiles last week, Lloyd explained.
That wing is scheduled to be completed by the end of January. Until then, it will be blocked off from the rest of the school.
