Although Northcott Prairie K-8 kids have been in their new school building since 2020, they were never able to celebrate a grand opening due to the pandemic. 

Rocky View Schools (RVS) Superintendent Greg Luterbach, who was in attendance for the eventual late grand opening gave his remarks and talked about how it's still a special day. 

“Part of growing as a community is opening new schools. While the school has been open for a little bit, today is really that official acknowledgement of the grand openings and welcoming it to the community.” 

SchoolEverybody attending the event.

Luterbach mentioned how previous years were rather interesting. 

“It has been a great school already, their two-plus years in here have been tricky. We've had kids at home, we've had kids without the ability to assemble together and come together in the gym, as a group, and now that's the reality. We want to celebrate that they've built their culture.” 

Mrs. Devon Sawby the acting principal at Northcott Prairie School was ecstatic about the special day. 

“We're super excited to finally open our school and have guests come in and actually have a ceremony where we can honour the good work and the beautiful building.” 

Sawby did say it would have been ideal to have the grand opening the first year, this works just as well. 

“I think that the three years leading up to this ceremony have allowed us to establish a culture where we have things like our bison cheer. We had the opportunity to work in different grade groupings together with buddies and things like that. It really makes us feel like a whole community rather than separate classes.” 

At the beginning of the school's history, when they had satellite students, the students were split up and ended up learning at three different schools, Cooper’s Crossing School, Muriel Clayton Middle School and Herons Crossing School. 

bandGrade 6 band performance.

Currently, the K-8 school has 764 students and 65 staff members. They currently have two portable schools and are expecting four more in the summer to accommodate their growth. Sawby predicts they will have around 870 students in September. 

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