New Parish Office and New Classrooms Project Presentation

At the beginning of this New Year, we can take the opportunity to reflect on the blessings we have received and our accomplishments both personally and in the life of our parish. I am proud and grateful that over the last few years, with the help of many and a lot of hard work, we have been able to achieve two major projects in the parish: the renovation of our church sanctuary and the construction of our modular classrooms, both of which have been a great blessing for our parish community. I am excited to present to you the next phase of work we are now undertaking to expand our classroom space and to build a new parish office. All the building we are planning has one goal which lies at the heart of who we are: to bring people closer to Jesus and to better serve the needs of our parishioners. You know well that given the smaller size of our property we need to maximize the use of every space in order to serve all the members of the parish. There are two immediate needs we will be addressing – the need for additional classroom space and the need to recuperate the use of our church hall and meeting spaces for parish use. Thus, we are planning to build six new modular classrooms (pending city approval) between the gym and the old church. This will be done in two phases: phase one will see three classrooms built. This will allow us to move all the remaining classrooms out of the lower level of the church and thus to free up this space for use during the week; we will again be able to offer funeral receptions, seniors bingo, and other activities from Monday to Friday. Archbishop Smith gave St. Helen’s Parish his approval to go ahead with this first phase just before Christmas. The parish has, at the suggestion of the Archdiocese, already contracted Westbourne Projects who oversaw the new classrooms we recently completed, to come up with a site plan and to oversee tendering bids for the project. Once the first phase is completed we will immediately begin the second phase of three more classrooms. Two additional classrooms will allow us to double stream the entire school (that is, to have two classrooms per grade from Kindergarten to Grade Seven) as well as a dedicated LRT room for teachers to assist children with special learning needs. The project manager has indicated that the first phase could be completed sometime early next year. At the same time, once we have raised an adequate amount of funds to begin, we plan to construct the new parish office at 3839 Pandora Street. To better serve the pastoral needs of the parish, the new office will be larger and more accessible.  The need for Catholic education is very strong in our area. For some time now we have received about one hundred Kindergarten applications per year. Since we only had one Kindergarten class available for next school year we have decided to convert the current office back into a classroom and the parish office will be relocated to the church. The entrance to the office will be on the east side of the church. The relocation of the office should be completed by the end of this week. In order to facilitate the move our parish office will be closed at least until this Wednesday. Once the new parish office is completed, the temporary office will be used as RCIA and PREP offices.The construction of the new modular classrooms and the new parish office will together cost approximately $4.5 million. Funds generated from the school will help to cover the better portion of the cost of the new modular classrooms and the school has also committed $250,000 for the construction of the new parish office. We need your financial help to realize this project for the good of St. Helen’s Parish and ask you to consider making a contribution. You can use the envelopes marked «New Parish Office and New Classrooms Fund» or the bar code found on the poster at the entrance of the church to donate or you can make cheques payable to «St. Helen’s Parish» with the memo «Capital Fund». Thank you for your support. I know that together we can make this vision a reality and continue to grow and better serve our community.

Question regarding the Original Plan for the East Wing of the School

When the West Wing of the School was built about fifteen years ago the plan also included an East Wing. The plan was to knock down the old church and for the East Wing to extend from the gym to the corner of our property. The old school was to be knocked down and a field to be put in its place. Since that time a couple of major factors changed: the unforeseen and necessary demolition of the old school prior to the construction of any new building and the great increase in the price of construction. When we were forced to demolish the old school we also had to plan for new classroom space quickly and according to the means we had available. Thus, we decided on the construction of modular classrooms. Today, the construction of the East Wing as originally planned would cost somewhere between ten and fifteen million. Given that the old church is seismically quite sound it was converted into a Learning Center (library, music room, and STEM room).

The decision to expand the school with additional modular classrooms achieves the original aim of the planned East Wing to establish a double stream school while preserving the old church, which is an important part of our parish's history, at a fraction of the cost that it would take to build the East Wing as it was originally planned.