École J.H. Picard School is a

K–12 K–12, from kindergarten to 12th grade, is an English language expression that indicates the range of years of publicly supported primary and secondary education found in the United States and Canada, which is similar to publicly supported sch ...

school located in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is presently the only

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that provides

French Immersion French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which students who do not speak French as a first language will receive instruction in French. In most French- immersion schools, students will learn to speak French and learn most subjects ...

education from kindergarten to grade 12.

History

The school is named after Joseph Henri Picard, a francophone politician from

. It was officially opened on September 9, 1973 at a cost of $1.2 million. The school was built to consolidate the students previously attending l'Académie Assomption, a private girls school originally run by the Sisters of the Assumption, and College St. Jean for boys into a co-ed environment. The original location of the school was 8828 95 Street in the Bonnie Doon community, not far from Campus Saint Jean and Edmonton's French Quarter. Many dignitaries attended the official opening of the school including Archbishop Anthony Jordan;

Lou Hyndman Louis Davies Hyndman, (July 1, 1935 – November 24, 2013) was a Canadian lawyer and politician from Alberta. He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for 19 years and was a member of Premier Peter Lougheed and Don Getty's ...

Minister of Education; Julian Koziak, MLA, Edmonton-Strathcona;

Ivor Dent Ivor Graham Dent, (February 7, 1924 – March 29, 2009) was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as mayor of Edmonton from 1968-1974 and was a candidate for the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Alberta on be ...

, Mayor of the City of Edmonton; and Lt. Governor

Grant MacEwan John Walter Grant MacEwan (August 12, 1902 – June 15, 2000) was a Canadian farmer, professor at the University of Saskatchewan, dean (education), Dean of Agriculture at the University of Manitoba, the 28th Mayor of Calgary and both a Membe ...

. The school remained at that location until 1984, when it moved to a much larger facility, the former St. Mary's high School, at 7055 99 St NW. The original, smaller facility of Picard became

École Maurice-Lavallée École Maurice-Lavallée is a high school in the Bonnie Doon neighbourhood of south-central Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It provides Catholic francophone education to Grade 10-12 students. School history École Maurice-Lavallée is the first publ ...

. A CBC radio documentary in 1988 profiled francophone parents whose children attended the school:

"Basically our students are going to a school designed by and for English speaking people," said Francophone parent Frank McMann." As a result they're getting a second class education."

This situation was resolved with the creation of the Greater North Central Francophone Education Region No. 2, a distinct francophone board, following the 1990 ''

Mahe v Alberta ''Mahé v Alberta'', 9901 S.C.R. 342, is a leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. The ruling is notable because the court established that section 23 of the ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' requires parents of the official-l ...

'' court case. In 2000, the parents' council for J.H. Picard helped fund the building of a new playground. As early as the late 1990s J.H. Picard was placed on a list for a major modernization which would have included a completely updated theater space. In 2011, the

Edmonton Catholic School District Edmonton Catholic Separate School Division No. 7 or the Edmonton Catholic School Division (ECSD) is the Catholic school board in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Size The Edmonton Catholic School Division currently operates 96 schools. There are a tot ...

(ECSD) Board of trustees decided to place J.H. Picard as the number one priority for relocation on their capital plan. The plan would have entailed relocation of the junior and senior high school to the Silverberry district of south east Edmonton. The new location would have shared a property with the adjacent Meadows Community Recreation Center as well with a possible new Edmonton Public Schools high school. Due to pressure from the then current parents committee, the Catholic School trustee board shelved the relocation plan. In 2014, the Edmonton Catholic School board approved and commenced construction of the modernization of the 99th Street site, which temporarily displaced the elementary grades to across the field at the former St. Margaret school building. Construction was completed in February 2017. Renovations included an expansion of the parking lot, a new sound and recording studio, and a newly renovated Drama instruction and rehearsal space.

Present

The École J.H. Picard School is now The drama program has put on numerous productions, including ''Othello'', ''Annie'', ''West Side Story'', and for the first time in its history put on a Jr.High Production: ''the Lion King''. Productions stalled briefly due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

which affected the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 school years. They restarted with a production of ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.'' The students operate an in-house daily broadcast call JHPTV and school social media and email accounts to replace the monthly newsletter "The Picardien." The school continues to field sports teams in junior and senior high, participating in soccer, volleyball, basketball, and track and field. The school sports teams are known as the Pumas.J. H. Picard School
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References

External links

School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecole Elementary schools in Edmonton Middle schools in Edmonton High schools in Edmonton French-language schools in Alberta Educational institutions established in 1972 French immersion schools in Canada 1972 establishments in Alberta Schools of the performing arts