St. Patrick Elementary School in Pincourt is celebrating the official opening of its new wing.
The $6.5 million addition was completed last autumn, doubling the size of the school, but the official ceremony took place Monday to inaugurate the extension.
School board officials including Suanne Stein Day, the chair of the board, Pincourt Mayor Yvan Cardinal and the MNA for the region, Marie-Claude Nichols, were on hand for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Alyssa Moule, in grade four, said being part of the first classes to use the extension is fantastic.
"We're the first kids that get to go in the new wing so it's funner because we are the first ones," she said.
Principal Michael Rabinovitch is very happy that his expanded school can now welcome more than 600 students.
"Everything is brand new and fresh and there's just... there is a great sense of a real process of moving forward," said Rabinovitch.
The new wing added 17 classrooms to the school, as well as a new library and a resource room. The music room oversees the school's cafeteria, lending it a sense of hanging in mid-air.
School officials say while other schools in the district may be struggling, the Lester B. Pearson school board is seeing growth off-island as anglophone families move to Ile Perrot and Vaudreuil-Dorion.
