St. Patrick’s Community School:
A little new, a lot improved BY CINDY CHAN
S
taff and students are
end-of-life expectancy. The school
construction, according to Jaeger.
pretty lucky to be
operates on a year-round calendar
attending the newly
and had been sitting at 130 per
The first month of construction
renovated St. Patrick’s
cent utilization, so it was full,”
Community School.
Jaeger says of the K-9 school.
consisted of full-on demolition of the some of the areas being removed, according
Located in Red Deer, the school
The project took part in three
to Steenbergen. Throughout
underwent a modernization
phases; Phase 1 consisted of
August and September, they
and addition to better serve the
the new build, while Phases 2
graded the site and rubbed the
pupils and teachers it houses.
and 3 involved the demolition
area to accommodate the new
The modernization approved and
and renovation, according to
foundations. At the end of August,
funded by the Alberta government
the Chandos team of Louie
they erected steel and structure for
included some demolition of the
Ayres, construction manager/
the new build.
existing modular classrooms. Ken
superintendent; Jason Towers,
Jaeger, owner of KTJ Consulting
vice-president and district
“We did intensive demolition
and now retired supervisor of
manager; and Ben Steenbergen,
support services for Red Deer
project manager.
Catholic Regional Schools, says
Craig Webber, principal at Group2
units to replace them with new
Architecture Interior Design Ltd.,
ones,” Ayres says. “We also
says the school also replaced its
demolished and replaced the main
mechanical electrical systems and
washrooms in the St. Patrick’s hall,
upgraded its building envelope.
as well as adding two barrier-free
the modernization and addition accommodated the growing population of students and addressed aging infrastructure within the facility.
Construction began in July 2018
throughout the school, cut out the wall of the mechanical room and removed the mechanical
washrooms.”
“The school was built in 1982, and
and wrapped up in December
The new classrooms were built
no major work had been done so
2019. The school was fully
for a 21st-century learning
the systems were reaching their
occupied during all three phases of
environment, some of which
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FACILITY FOCUS • Fall 2021
