Elliot Lake Secondary School (ELSS) and its intermediate students opened the school doors last Wednesday, attracting a large crowd.
The event marked the first school year of Grade 7 and Grade 8 students who began classes last September in the ELSS building at the corner of Hillside Drive and Mississauga Avenue.
And despite pandemic restrictions through much of their first year, ELSS principal Rick Juuti deemed the year as “productive,” with the addition of 103 students from Grade 7 and Grade 8 coming from Esten and Central public schools.
Intermediate principal Amanda Dunbar and Juuti said moving the students has freed up space at both public schools and allowed vacant space at the high school to be put to better use.
Juuti said the addition of the intermediates had seen the total student population at the ELSS building grow to about 500 students.
“It’s nice having that many students in the building,” Juuti said during a tour of the facility.
Pre-pandemic saw the total ELSS student population dip to about 300, he added, though enrolment across the school board has seen a steady rise.
There are eight teachers on the intermediate side and 40 teachers and support staff on the high school side.
The school has undergone extensive renovations, with intermediate student classes now housed in a wing of the school that once was designated for high school math classes and adult learning.
There have also been extensive renovations in the library and cafeteria.
The end of the first year of intermediate classes will also see some history for the building, constructed around 1958 with two separate graduations. The graduation ceremonies will be held in the auditorium at the end of June.
Graduations have not been in the auditorium since the pandemic started.
The intermediate students are also doing small projects in some of the shop wing classes to “acclimatize them” with programs they can take when they move on to Grade 9.
Juuti said the plan is to open the school to the public at the same time as an unofficial ELSS reunion taking place at the end of July.
"We’ll open it up for people to walk down memory lane and see the renovations,” he said.