Rainy River High School (RRHS) and Riverview Public School are closing their doors for good.
Although the old schools garner an emotional farewell from the many staff and students over the years, an updated kindergarten to Grade 12 building will bring advance learning capabilities for the small town on the west side of the district.
The two closing schools sit directly next to one another on Mill Avenue of Rainy River. When a child graduates eighth grade at Riverview, their next step is starting the first year of high school at RRHS. Things are going to be a bit different now. With the K-12 school opening just down the road, children and teenagers of all ages will be learning under one roof, bridging the gap between the two.
Michelle Van Beek, one of the two shared vice-principals for both schools, will soon be taking on the role of principal at the K-12. She said she’s looking forward to having students together in a more advanced space where more shared learning opportunities will be available.
“I’m excited about it,” Van Beek said. “I think we’ve been talking about it for over 10 years. There’s been all kinds of different plans made and then plans changed. So, to actually finally see a building standing over there is pretty amazing. This, these buildings have a lot of history, but they also have a lot of age, and these two schools already do a lot together because of their proximity, but to have the same building gives us opportunity for collaboration between the different panels.”
Although the emotions of leaving the space she taught in for 13 years before taking on an administrative role for the past two haven’t quite set in yet, Van Beek said she’s anticipating things being difficult as the school gets more and more empty.
“It will be emotional when we close the doors for the last time,” she said. “We’ve got two weeks of moving starting next week, so all of the furniture is going over there and getting put in place. That’ll be when it hits, is when the desks start moving out.”
For two students starting at the new building in September, there’s nothing emotional about it. Instead, Colton and Ryker, who are going into the tenth grade, are just excited for the better conditions.
Both students have had the opportunity to visit the new building and came out with only positive reviews.
“The hallways are bigger and it’s not going to be crowded walking down anymore. It’s going to be way better.” Colton said.
“There’s a science room, a big one, and it looks so nice,” Ryker said. “I kind of wish we stayed in the high school a little bit longer though.”
Out of all of the features of the K-12 building, both boys agreed that the most exciting part was the new gymnasium, which is twice the size of the one they currently have access to.
As exciting as a new and improved learning space can be for students, Van Beek said that from a staff perspective, another huge positive is that it also allows for wider representation of Indigenous culture.
“I think the biggest thing about that new school is that the demographics are going to be a bit different than other schools because of our partnership with Indigenous communities like Big Grassy and Big Island,” Van Beek said.
“We have a really large cohort of Indigenous students that come to our school, so it’s really special. In the new building we have a beautiful ceremony room that students will have access to, and I feel like the culture is really represented in that building, which I think is very important. We had a ceremony in the beginning of June where we had Elders from the community come and do a blessing over the building to make it a space where all students will feel welcome. I think that was a huge step and one of our goals moving forward is to make it a collaborative, safe environment for everybody.”
For the time being, Rainy River High School and Riverview Public School will be left vacant, but there are plans being made to demolish the buildings and make way for something else in the years to come.
