By Joel van der Veen

KENASTON — For the staff at Kenaston’s new Distance Learning Centre (DLC), perks of the job include the collaborative environment, modern workstations and state-of-the-art technology.

Not to mention the windows.

The second floor — where most of the staff is currently stationed — is flooded with natural light during the day, and also allows wide, panoramic views of winter Saskatchewan sunrises.

“That’s one wonderful thing about this building,” said Melanie Kerpan, a veteran educator who taught for more than 30 years in Kenaston starting in the mid-1970s, then joined the DLC staff in 2010 after a short-lived retirement.

Like the other staff members, Kerpan is enthused about the building itself — designed to foster collaboration between teachers through the use of open space and grouped workstations — and the potential it holds.

“They’ve designed it with foresight,” she said. “It’s going to be a good thing, for the town, the staff, the kids — the province, hopefully.”

After months of anticipation, construction on the 15,000-square foot facility finished in December at an estimated cost of $2.3 million.

Teachers, principals and support staff — who previously worked out of Kenaston School and the village’s curling rink — moved into the building just before Christmas. They had their first full day of work in the new DLC on Jan. 4.

Principal Jade Ballek said that 55 people are currently employed, either full-time or part-time, in the new building. She added that the number is constantly changing, and the facility has been designed to accommodate that continuous growth.

As of last week, the DLC has 670 full-time online students from across Saskatchewan, along with 500 students from Sun West School Division taking individual courses, and another 500 enrolled at other brick-and-mortar schools taking supplemental courses.

Over 100 different courses are offered through the DLC, including roughly 10 dual-credit courses — through which a student earns both a high school credit and a post-secondary credit.

As Ballek explained, the building’s collaborative purpose is evident from one end to the other, starting with the glass-panelled meeting room on the first floor.

Along with the reception area, the ground level holds a mixture of offices and meeting rooms, designed for flexibility of use.

For instance, the offices will be outfitted with Smart Boards so that teachers can use them for recording classes or “screencasting,” where anything written on the board is captured for later playback.

While the DLC’s high school-level classes consist entirely of online material, printed workbooks are still the norm for elementary classes.

A printing room is used to prepare and package this material, which is placed in an adjacent shipping room to be delivered wherever it’s needed.

While both floors include open workspaces for teaching staff, most of them are currently stationed on the second floor, grouped into professional learning teams (PLTs) based on their area of specialization.

Science and math teachers are grouped together, as are teachers of the humanities, which includes English language arts (ELA), history and psychology.

The open workspaces are framed using cubicles, allowing teachers to discuss their work together or quickly seek input from colleagues.

In addition to teaching classes, many of the staff are occupied with developing new course material or moving existing courses to the Moodle online platform.

Each station is outfitted with a standing desk that allows the user to adjust the height using an electronic control, easily moving between sitting and standing positions.

“The workstations are obviously very adaptable to how you want to work,” said Michelle Lee-Klassen, who joined the DLC staff in September and teaches two ELA courses.

Lee-Klassen had completed her internship in Outlook and said she wanted to come back to Sun West School Division if the opportunity came up.

Previously, she had subbed in Swift Current and Saskatoon, and also spent a year teaching in South Korea. Working in the DLC has allowed her to continue teaching in her area of expertise, she added.

“It’s really different than having your own classroom,” she said. “I’m happy that I’m able to keep teaching in my subject area.”

For the full story, please see the Jan. 18 edition of The Davidson Leader.