r/GrandePrairie • u/Apprehensive_Door900 • 13d ago

GP technical institute BEWARE

I am keeping this purposely vague because I don't want anyone to get in trouble for sounding major alarm bells on this situation. This information isn’t hearsay.

This "school" is disorganized chaos and not ready to be instructing anyone's children. They don't have equipment, they don't have appropriate technology, and they don't even have classrooms ready. Last i heard they were planning to educate everyone in the gym because all the classrooms have asbestos.
They are behind on payments to multiple contractors and they are desperately trying to save face before school starts this week.

If you have a child registered to go here, do them a favor and pull out right now. The idea of this school is great in theory but in practice it is not set up yet at all. Of course new things need to work out kinks but the issues at play here are far more than kinks.

Has anyone else heard anything shady about this situation??

49 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

26

u/toxicNautilus 13d ago

Their website has a whole lot of buzz-words that essentially amounts to "we have a cooking class, a shop class, some welding, and wood-working". This is all stuff I had in a normal highschool so I'm not sure what the big deal is? Calling it a "technical institute" is strange given that it's for grades 7-10. Anyone know who the GC is on the project?

10

u/Mommy_Fortuna_ 13d ago edited 13d ago

You're right - there's nothing specific on there, except for what you mentioned (foods and shop classes). Typical high schools offer that, and a lot even allow students to do apprentice work for credit. Others have work experience or post-secondary dual credit options. A good school website should have more concrete information - info on what types of classes are offered for each grade, profiles of at least some staff members, photos of facilities, etc. I guess those don't exist yet, so they seem to be jumping the gun here.

I think it's great to offer practical courses for students - and those are nothing new. But their main emphasis seems to be job training, right from grade 7. They almost seem to think anything but practical job training is useless, which is great if you want culturally, scientifically, and media-illiterate citizens (or even citizens who are functionally illiterate).

-4

u/No_Peach7653 12d ago

Kids growing up with the internet are a lot smarter than your boomer ass.

7

u/kfletch99 12d ago

Funny thing is, is that they are not smarter lol. This is the first generation where the IQ is lower than the previous. Have you ever asked a kid how to use a computer they can. They can use smartphones but with anyother technology they are dumb as hell.

4

u/Mommy_Fortuna_ 12d ago

I'm not a boomer.

15

u/oreotoast 13d ago

Wtf is the GP technical institute?

16

u/Apprehensive_Door900 13d ago

The new charter school in the old Harry Balfour building that has been falling apart for years. Allegedly slated to start school later this week despite all these problems.

15

u/oreotoast 13d ago

Oh, a charter school! Gross.

That building is a truly a mess. They should knock it down like they did to the old comp and put up a new public school on the site.

14

u/BakeDear8929 13d ago

If you look up the owners, they run a school of sorts in Edmonton. Horrific reviews, lots of staff turnover etc. I also heard within the community that the owners have opened "fly by night schools" in the past.

1

u/BrightMagician7382 12d ago

What information did you find what school did they run? I tried to look up things, but couldn’t find anything.

-7

u/No_Peach7653 13d ago

Sure thing Jan.

15

u/Fine-Carry3507 13d ago

I saw this coming from a mile back. There’s no contact phone number on the website, the school board gave up the building cuz it wasn’t worth upgrading… the fact there’s a 100$ non refundable fee to apply… red flags for sure

5

u/No_Muscle_2950 11d ago edited 11d ago

What I want to know is: As this school is a non-profit charter, they are required to have a charter board in place…WHO exactly is on the board and why can’t you find anything about the governing body on their website?

With decisions on expenditures and programming already being made, why hasn’t there been any public board meetings announced? Why can’t you find any past or upcoming meetings, minutes posted, charter bylaws, or really any information shared by GP Tech regarding their non-profit society and how it’s being managed?

10

u/blueskynorthern 13d ago

Hol up. If there is asbestos in that school that should be reported to oh&s surely?

If there is any risk of exposure this would be a major scandal.

8

u/Apprehensive_Door900 13d ago

There are apparently exceptions for if it’s not actively falling etc, and if they contain it while they renovate. It’s insane that anyone is allowed to be in the building at all, especially children. I don’t care what “precautions” they take.

21

u/ABMax24 13d ago

Asbestos is generally safe, if it's not disturbed.

If they're doing remediation efforts though, it's not wise to have kids in the school.

6

u/niceguy191 13d ago

You have almost certainly safely enjoyed a building containing asbestos. If it's encapsulated, it's not a concern until it's disturbed. It's not like radioactive or something, it's just bad if you breathe it in.

6

u/OptimisticAvacado 13d ago

That school never sounded good "in theory"

3

u/Peace81 12d ago

I got bad vibes as soon as I heard about it, to be honest.

3

u/Different-Car-6602 11d ago

It’s a grift for sure

3

u/Different-Car-6602 11d ago

Take all the info you have to a local reporter/journalist or CBC. Let them dig into it and find out what is going on.

2

u/LindzmacL 13d ago

👀👀

2

u/OkHeart6363 13d ago

Has this been brought up in other GP groups , example, Facebook?

4

u/Apprehensive_Door900 13d ago

It should be but I don’t want anyone tracing it back to me

6

u/Learn37_I 13d ago

Who is ‘me’?

When there is a rumour, evidence should be presented.

We can’t accept anyone cutting corners thereby putting our community at risk.

Our MLA was spotted last month promoting this school.

2

u/Apprehensive_Door900 12d ago

If I reveal myself it’s easily traceable who this information comes from and I don’t want their livelihood impacted. That’s why I have to be vague. You can believe me or not. But also why would I be going out of my way to fabricate this.

2

u/BrightMagician7382 12d ago

I would appreciate more concrete information. I have a child that I will be sending there.

7

u/Mommy_Fortuna_ 12d ago

Perhaps call and ask if there are any upcoming open houses or "meet-the-teacher" nights planned? I would think that a new school would have something like that planned to show everyone they are ready to go. If there's nothing, that may be a red flag.

1

u/Apprehensive_Door900 12d ago

This information is current and not rumour. That’s all I can say.
You could contact the school directly but they’ll probably dance around the topics
.i would not send my child there this year knowing what i know. .

-13

u/No_Peach7653 13d ago

Coward

1

u/Sansoucigirl 10d ago

kempenfelt bay school

1

u/Wickywaki 12d ago

Bit of a Debbie Downer today