Now that the Estevan Comprehensive School has about 13,000 additional square feet of unused space, I expect the great ideas tickle trunk will be opened up for suggestions.
You see about 10 or 12 years ago, unused space at ECS was rented out to the Southeast Regional College and later the Energy Training Institute chipped in by taking up some rental space too. But since those two entities have moved lock, stock and barrel over to the new Saskatchewan Energy Training whatevers ... ECS and by extension, the South East Cornerstone School Division finds itself as a landlord without a tenant.
So what to do with all that space?
Of course I will humbly suggest that the school board does some modest renovations to turn the newly created space into the city's largest boarding house.
What could go wrong?
The cafeteria/cafetorium is right there for meals. The principal and vice-principals can be the rent collectors every week/month. The parking lot is available ... the pubs are close by. Somebody would have to do something about those gawdawful school bells signalling the end of each class though. Those getting off night shifts might not appreciate them. The students can just be reminded of a shift in classes by twitters or text messages. No need to ring bells anymore.
Or ... the space could be used for a daycare centre. That would be sooo much fun. Little kids and teenagers ... just like being at home, or back in the day when one-room school houses ruled and the older kids were responsible for protecting and helping the younger ones.
Maybe that's what our mid-teens need ... a little shot of responsibility to go along with the new wheels, games and electronic message machines. Some good old interaction with someone who requires them to do something might prove fruitful. A somewhat novel idea, but perhaps something that requires looking into.
OK, my third suggestion then, is an expansion of the ECS vocational, technical and industrial programming into that abandoned space. Good grief, everyone around here is looking for somebody who knows how to weld ... while quoting Shakespeare of course, but mostly welders and fitters plus mechanics (technicians), electricians and plumbers. Let ECS be a centre of excellence for upcoming SIAST candidates. Let us be the real power centre of education. We can graduate students who can parse a sentence while fixing a door handle on a 2010 Chrysler.
SIAST said last month they have a backlog of 475 students waiting to get into their classes. Gee, any ideas of what could be done?
How about Estevan's Learning Centre of Excellence?
The motto could be something like "This isn't Weyburn, we get things done here!"
All right, that wasn't nice, but I do believe you get the drift of this conversation, dear diary.
What do you think should be done with all that empty space in the big building on the hill?
Post your brilliant concepts to normpark@estevanmecury.ca and I'll see to it that all the clever people within our educational systems (all three of them), get your message.
