Calf Robe to get own building next year

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The Ben Calf Robe School will finally be moving to its own facilities after more than three yeas of negotiation with the Edmonton Catholic School Board.

During a December 7 board meeting, a motion made by trustee Jim Shinkaruk designating the Notre Dame School in Edmonton's west end as the future site for the school was passed. The site ownership will be transferred to the school in September next year.

The basis of the request for a separate facility was the need for more space, said supervisor of Native Education, Leith Campbell. The school has had to turn students away, find extra space for a social worker and acquire more space for an adult education program as well as looking to future expansion into high school level grades.

Campbell dismissed allegations that the trustees might be called segregationists saying that "if you take people with special needs and instill in them a sense of special pride and special strengths by working with them in a special way, you'll get a person who will integrate much more smoothly."

The new site is about 55 city blocks away from the school's present location and society president Pat Shirt was asked if this might have an adverse effect on enrolment. Shirt admitted it might, but added that many students are willing to travel considerable distances to participate in the programs.

Shirt has served as president since the society formed in 1981 and says he is "thrilled" with the board decision. And Campbell echoed Shirt's views saying the good news hadn't "quite sunk in yet."

Mike Mochulski, the principal at St. Pius school where Ben Calf Robe operates from said the decision was "a positive one and a long time coming." Although his own school program and that of Ben Calf lived "in harmony", administering two programs was a difficult job . . . very trying at times, he added.

In June 1984 the school board was approached by the school with a request for a separate facility. Although the basic idea was approved, finding the site proved to be the main problem.

Status reports were requested in December 1984, September 1985 and February 1986. But on each occasion, no school site could be identified. However, later this year the Notre Dame site became vacant.

Similar school programs operate in Saskatoon and Calgary. The Saskatoon Survival School has its own facilities while Calgary's Plains Indian Cultural Survival School, which accommodates approximately 166 high school students, shares its quarters with another school

Although, the old Notre Dame School will house the school, it will now be called the Ben Calf Robe School, named after the well known Blackfoot man who advocated education for all Native people. The new location will be at 15425 ? 91 Avenue.