Bison Run School grand opening, embracing Indigenous ways of being

To keep up with the fast-growing Waverley West area, Pembina Trails School Division is welcoming children to their newest elementary school.

Opening on January 30 is Bison Run School, an elementary school that offers grades from kindergarten to grade eight.

The two-story, 81,400 sqft facility is built on a 25-acre, at 60 Frontier Trail in Pembina Trails School Division. It has a capacity of 800 students from kindergarten to grade eight.

"I am very excited that Bison Run School is ready to start welcoming students in January, a new facility where they can continue to learn and develop," says Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Wayne Ewasko. "This new school will help accommodate the growth that Waverley West has seen over the last few years and alleviate pressures on other kindergarten to Grade 8 schools in Winnipeg."

Pembina Trails School Division Superintendent of Education and CEO, Lisa Boles, says that having a new school is exciting and she is excited for when it can be a cornerstone for children's development with its neighbouring high school (Pembina Trails Collegiate).

"It's a beautiful school," says Boles. "The principal and the staff have done a lot of work in terms of naming the school with feedback from students throughout the division and other stakeholders. It's how they're embracing where it is, of course, it's on a big piece of prairie right now with not a lot around it and that's the land where millions of bison used to run."

Boles says that for the remainder of the school year, kids are welcome for kindergarten and grade seven, that way children in grade eight can finish their school year without the trouble of transitioning from school to school.

It is the hope that with the two schools sitting on the same plot of land, it will provide collaboration between them. This includes offering older students the opportunity to support and mentor the younger students, share their facilities, and teach the importance of community and education.

"Just really building on that theme of being on the prairie and taking a lot at Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being as well."