Citadel High School

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Citadel High School
Courage, Honour, Strength
Address
1855 Trollope Street Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3L 2T5, Canada
Coordinates	44°38′49″N 63°35′09″W / 44.64704, -63.585713Coordinates: 44°38′49″N 63°35′09″W / 44.64704, -63.585713
Information
School number	283 (HRSB), 1109 (NS)
School board	Halifax Regional School Board
Superintendent	Carole Olsen
Principal	Tam Fawcett
Vice principal	Agnes Greer Gregory MacKinnon Wade Smith
School type	High school
Grades	10 through 12
Language	English, French
Mascot	Phoenix
Team name	Citadel Phoenix
Colours	Red, gold
Founded	2007
Enrollment	1389 (September 30, 2007)
Homepage	http://www.chs.ednet.ns.ca/

Citadel High School is a Canadian high school located in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The school opened in September 2007 on the the site of the former Bell Road Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College. Its location bordering Bell Road, Trollope Street, and Ahern Avenue is adjacent to the Halifax Common and immediately west of Citadel Hill, a National Historic Site from which the school derives its name. The building was designed by the architectural firm Fowler, Bauld & Mitchell, and built by Pomerleau Construction.

Citadel High has replaced two older schools: Queen Elizabeth High and Saint Patrick's High, opened in 1942 and 1955 respectively. The new school offers courses for the International Baccalaureate program adding to the schools in the Halifax area that have the IB program. Other schools in the Halifax area with the IB program are Halifax West High School, Halifax Grammar School, Prince Andrew High School. QEH and St. Pat's offered Pre-IB courses in 2006-2007 to Grade 10 students preparing for the IB program at Citadel High.

1 History
- 1.1 Planning and construction
- 1.2 Growing pains
2 Facilities
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Citadel High construction site, August 9, 2006.

[edit] Planning and construction

The planned construction of the new school was initially announced by the Province of Nova Scotia, on June 12, 2003^[1]. Designed to replace Queen Elizebeth High School and St. Patrick's High School, the school would be located on the site of the Halifax campus of the NSCC, which would subsequently be relocated to a new facility on the Dartmouth waterfront. On March 31, 2005, the HRSB announced the new name of the school, "Citadel", which was selected in a vote among other suggestions including "Halifax Central", "Willow Tree" (for the nearby traffic interchange of the same name), and "Vincent Coleman" (for the Halifax Explosion hero immortalized in a Heritage Minute). There was also a motion to name the school after Anna Leonowens, who helped found NSCAD in 1887.

Citadel High construction site, December 2, 2006.

Construction began in the Spring of 2006, following the destruction of the old community college. The school began operation in September of 2007, and was officially opened by Premier Rodney MacDonald and Minister of Education Karen Casey in November of that year.

[edit] Growing pains

The school was only built to accommodate 1200 students. However, around 1389 students enroled for the first year.

Due to the high student to teacher ratio at the school, there will be limits imposed for enrollment in certain higher level academic classes. To determine which students will be able to participate in the class, a cutoff will be made based on the previous semester's average class grades. For those students that do not make the cutoff average, the student can select one of the two alternative courses previously chosen during course selection. This however, does not apply to International Baccalaureate students. If a student that does not make the cutoff, but still wants to attend the class, special arrangements can be made with his/her guidance counselor for online classes.

[edit] Facilities

Citadel High School as seen from Bell Road.

The new school includes a 10,500 square foot gymnasium, 4,800 square foot cafeteria, 3,000 square foot library, and an auditorium, which is smaller than both former school's auditoriums, still under construction.

Citadel High School incorporates some architectural elements of the two high schools and the former community college. Six bas-relief sandstone carvings which were located at the entrances of QEH were installed in the new cafeteria. The carvings depict school-related activities such as science, sports, drama, and history. The new school also features four new sandstone carvings which will be done by students of Citadel.

Sandstone banding that's been integrated into the brick work on the west wall of the new school was salvaged from the facade of St. Pat's. Bleacher seating from the gymnasium at St. Pat's has been refinished to accommodate an additional 300 spectators in the new gymnasium.

Approximately 3500 glass blocks salvaged from the former community college has become part of the wall in the gymnasium and the original wooden main entry, which includes beveled glass, has become the entrance of the new school's library

An effort is being made to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification. This "green building" rating system emphasizes sensible land-use, energy efficiency, and comfort. Examples of LEED elements in the project include the field sod roof of the cafeteria, collected rainwater used for flushing toilets, extensive use of construction materials with recycled content, use of Low-E glazing and a reflective white ThermoPlastic Olefin roof membrane.