Bowness High School's new addition will remain largely unfinished even when complete

Bowness High School is getting a brand-new addition but once it opens — behind schedule — next January, roughly a third of the space will remain unfinished and closed off to students.

That's a shame, according to Marion Enns, who has one son currently attending the northwest high school and another who plans to attend in a couple of years.

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"I just think it's sad that this is a beautiful thing that everybody thinks is such a gift, and the fact is that a large portion of it is going to be unusable," Enns said.

"I think it's wrong. I think our kids are worth more."

School delays

Bowness was one of 17 school projects in Calgary that Education Minister David Eggen revealed last October would be delayed from their original completion dates.

Eggen blamed the previous PC government for failing to set up "realistic construction timelines" when it promised dozens of new schools or school modernizations in 2014 and 2015.

But Enns said she and other moms and dads of Bowness students only learned at a recent parent council meeting that roughly 35 per cent of the new addition would remain "locked up and unusable," even once the project is complete.

Bowness High School was built in the 1950s and the southeast wing was demolished to make room for the new addition as part of the project, which also includes major renovations of other parts of the school.

53% utilization

With the amount of provincial funding available, the Calgary Board of Education had little choice but to leave a portion of the Bowness addition unfinished, according to Dany Breton, superintendent of facilities and environmental services.

"The government is living within its means … and so ultimately we ended up getting a little bit less than what we had asked for," he said.

With roughly $18 million to work worth rather than the originally requested $20 million, Breton said the CBE opted to build the entire addition now but leave some rooms unfinished because the school, with a current enrolment of about 800 students, is only at half capacity.

"We don't have an immediate need," he said. "The school is at 53 per cent utilization at this time. But we have this great future flexibility for the school that's available."

Career-oriented course offerings

The addition and renovations are intended to provide space for career-oriented courses including culinary arts, fashion, fitness, sports medicine, automotive repair, construction and cosmetology.

Breton said leaving some space unfinished will actually provide "tremendous future opportunity" to develop those spaces based on which programs prove to be most popular, or for new course offerings that don't exist yet.

"By avoiding actually finishing them right now, we are saving ourselves money, potentially, later on and having to undo what we did in order to better fit them up to what will actually be required in the future," he said.

Breton said the CBE would have to make a new application to the province for grant funding before finishing the unused space.

New school opened nearby in 2013

Bowness High School serves students from a wide swath of northwest Calgary and Enns said part of the reason enrolment is currently low is because of the 2013 opening of Robert Thirsk High School about six kilometres to the north.

But Enns said that shouldn't prevent Bowness students from having full use of their new facility.

She said many students, who are currently on spring break, aren't aware that the addition will be left partially unfinished.

"The staff and students of Bowness should have the chance to enjoy in its entirety the opportunity that was presented to them with this modernization," she said.

"I think it's showing students that they have value by finishing a project that should be finished and would be better than saying, 'We don't really value your education enough to finish this project.'"

This is the site plan for the project, provided on the Bowness High School website: