The Prairie Mennonite Alternative School is pictured on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 (photo by Colton McKee)

By Charles Lefebvre

New school building

Staff ready for Mennonite Alternative school to open in Medicine Hat

Aug 27, 2019 | 4:56 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Staff at the Prairie Mennonite Alternative School are putting the finishing touches on their new space in Medicine Hat before it opens to students.

The school will be moving into the former Ecole St. Thomas d’Aquin building in Medicine Hat, following a deal this spring between the Prairie Rose School Division, who run the Mennonite education program, and the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education, who owned the building.

“It allows us to do some extra programming with the extra space we have,” said Tracy Frank, principal of the Prairie Mennonite Alternative Program.”It allows us to offer some more hands-on things, it offers the Phys. Ed possibilities moreso than what we were able to previously.”

The lease is in place for 10 years. Mennonite students from Redcliff will be bused in to the new school in Medicine Hat.

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Prairie Rose School Division has run an Alternative program for Mennonite students in Redcliff for the past six years. The program began at I.F. Cox School, and later moved to the former RCMP detachment building.

Mennonite students receive a morning catechism class and an additional class in German, in addition to the standard provincial curriculum.

“It allowed the students to come to school, and has kept them in school longer than traditionally they would stay in a regular English school,” said Frank.

However, Frank notes attendance at the school has grown over the years, resulting in the school outgrowing its present space.

“We were able to, as we moved to this school, acquire a gym facility, which we hadn’t had before, and a library,” she said. “We had strong partnerships in Redcliff with the Redcliff Public Library, but now we have our own facility. The playground was non-existent at our other school, and now we have one of the best playgrounds in Medicine Hat.”

Staff and teachers have been busy throughout the summer, preparing the school for when students arrive on September 3.

“The kids are really chomping at the bit, they’re pretty excited,” Frank said. “When I worked here throughout the summer, I could see lots of nose prints and hand prints on the windows, everybody was trying to look in, but I’ve tried to keep them out, so it’s a big surprise on the first day of school, and I can’t wait for them to see the new space.”

Frank says approximately 100 students have registered for kindergarten to Grade 9 programming. The old building in Redcliff will be used for night classes for older Mennonite students.