New school, at last, for English elementary students in Drummondville, Que.

Principal Dany Grenon says she and head teacher Kathy Napier got emotional the first time they visited Drummondville Elementary School's brand new building.

The $16-million school, officially unveiled Wednesday, opened its doors to its students on March 8.

"We cried," said Grenon. "For us, it was a really big moment."

It's been three years since the provincial government authorized the construction of a brand-new school for English-language students in Drummondville, a city of 70,000 about 100 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

The school was under construction for the past two years and serves a growing community. Enrolment had tripled over the past 20 years – climbing as francophone students with English eligibility have clamoured to get in.

For students at the school, the new building offers a range of exciting new activities and opportunities. Grade 1 student Émilie Boisclair says she especially likes the reading nook in her classroom.

"It's round and the cushions are blue and you can sit in it to read," she said, adding she's already made her way through Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.

Her brother Oliver, in Grade 6, loves the new gym and outdoor space.

"It's more fun to do gym in that new gym: basketball, ping pong, a lot of sports. There's a bigger soccer field, you can slide on the hills, you can also bird watch if you like to do that. I've done it once or twice," he said.

"It's really nice to have some space finally. It's a big upgrade."

Tailored to the community's needs

Michael Murray, chair of the Eastern Townships School Board, says the upgrade was desperately needed.

The old school, on loan from the board's French-language counterpart, the Centre de services scolaire des Chênes, had no library, no cafeteria and no student lockers. You could only get to the student bathrooms by walking through the gym. At one point, the school was renting extra space in a church basement across the street.

"You can perhaps understand how squeezed, compressed and inadequate that space was and how delighted we are to offer this glorious, state of the art school to this same staff," said Murray.

"This school has performed amazing miracles in raising a generation of students with resources that were pitiful."

Murray says the school board worked closely with architects to make sure every part of the building's design accommodates the needs of students and staff. There's a large gymnasium with lots of natural light and interactive games, open classrooms with interlocking desks, long rows of cubbies and lockers in wide hallways and a nature walk and playground outside.

"It was a vindication," said Murray, who spent years lobbying government for the new building, "to be able to look them in the eye and feel we're giving them something that we should have been giving them all along."

For Grenon, the new building is something she knew parents wanted since she arrived as principal in 2016, and already she's thinking about how the new school may attract more students.

"I got here six years ago and we were around 240," she said. "Next year we're up to 295 and I'm really positive we're going to hit 300."

For now, she's grateful the students can learn and grow in an exciting new environment and she says they're happy to be there, too.

"Every day we stop in the hallway and the kids say, 'I have so much space.' I think it's making a huge difference."