Residents dream up future for St. Pat’s Alexandra development

Robert DeVet — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:56:26 +0000

Community members gather to discuss future housing possibilities on the St. Patrick's- Alexandra site

K'JIPUKTUK, HALIFAX - It’s called the hub of Halifax’s north end, and it’s about time to see change, locals say.

Goodbye, St. Pat’s Alexandra

HBeaumont — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:00:25 +0000

Replacing North-End Halifax’s Africentric school with condos

Janitors are polishing the floors at St. Patrick’s-Alexandra School while the halls are empty. It’s summer vacation. On the second floor, the library shelves are half-filled with books. It’s as if the shelves have been cleared for dusting, but a janitor tells me they’ve been mostly bare for years. Across the hall, the primary room looks like an outdated, unfurnished home, waiting to be filled. Four tiny tables form an archipelago in the centre of the room. Crafts, in short supply, are stacked in cupboards and a small number of stuffed animals are tucked into a hamper. This fall, the classroom will do double duty for the combined Primary and Grade 1 classes, containing eleven toddlers total.

Attendance at St. Pat’s, one of the hopeful beacons of education in Halifax’s tightly woven North End community, has been falling for years. The south wing of the third floor has been closed to students in recent years since attendance began to drop and teachers began to quit. Just 80 students attended the P to 9 school in 2008 – 58 students less than the 138 enrolled the year before, though the building has the capacity for 800. Falling enrollment is one of many reasons the Halifax Regional School Board voted in March to close the brick building as a school by 2011. The former school property will be sold to make way for condominiums.

St. Pat’s is one of the few schools in Nova Scotia with Africentric leanings. Serving the mostly African-Canadian population of Uniacke Square, the school teaches the history and values of the black community, giving priority to African Nova Scotian role models such as Wayne Adams, the first black member of the province’s legislature; Dr. William P. Oliver, the first African Nova Scotian to receive two degrees; and Corrine Sparks, the first African Nova Scotian judge. Plaques bearing their names and penciled portraits hang in the halls.

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St. Pat's Memories

HBeaumont — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:18:11 +0000

St. Pat's Alexandra is set to close in 2011, to be replaced by condos. What will happen to school's North End neighbourhood?