By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

Wilson staff, students celebrate completion of $17.5 million renovation

Sep 21, 2017 | 1:56 PM

LETHBRIDGE – No more dust, dirt, construction equipment everywhere and displaced students and staff.
 
After 3.5 years and millions of dollars, Wilson Middle School held it’s grand re-opening Thursday (Sept. 21), celebrating the new look and all of the improvements that have been completed.
 
Principle Dean Hawkins says it’s now a place where staff and students want to be, rather than have to be.
 
“When you walk into the building it’s just open and new and fresh. And you walk in and it’s somewhere where you wanna be, instead of just saying ‘ah, do I gotta go to school.’ You wanna be here early. You wanna be here with your friends. You can hang out, you can sit on the couches, you can sit on the tables, you can visit. You know, we have kids here until 7 p.m.”
 
The school was built in 1960, and was identified several years ago as the Lethbridge Public School Division’s top priority for modernization.
 
Some of the new features include a commercial kitchen and open cafeteria/entrance, there will soon be interactive video boards in three common areas, two outdoor fitness areas, a new indoor gym, new band room and construction shops, and collapsible walls built between six classrooms allowing for collaborative teaching opportunities.
 
Hawkins says it was tough ‘jamming’ 640 students and even more staff into just 1/3 of the building for so long. At one point he believed he might lose 50 per cent of his staff because of the stress of the ongoing renovations. He’s proud to say that 85 per cent stayed.
 
“It was tough. But now, the kids just really love it, and the issues we have are minimal….and I can’t say enough about our staff.”
 
The final touches on the school, including installing the video boards, should be completed by the end of October.