Alexander Galt Regional High School

Story

Alexander Galt Regional High School, located in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada, is an English-language secondary school which opened in 1969. It provides English education to 1150 Secondary 1 - 5 students in the southeastern region of the Eastern Townships. There are similar English-language regional high schools in Richmond and Cowansville. The regional school concept emerged in the 1960s, in both the English and French language systems. Schooling was previously divided four ways - English or French, Catholic or Protestant. All high schools within a large catch area were closed and students bussed to high school daily. High schools in communities like Magog, Sherbrooke, Lennoxville, Stanstead, Scotstown, Sawyerville, Coaticook and Cookshire were converted to elementary schools, where younger children from the Baby boom were already swelling the capacity. The loss of identity based on their local high school was a challenge which many small communities did not survive.FacilitiesThe school is located on a 45acre fenced campus on the outskirts of Sherbrooke within viewing distance of Bishops University and Lennoxville. The school was constructed with concrete blocks and red brick in a Celtic cross-shape, nestled in a depression with a surrounding roadway level with the 2nd floor. The central block is 3-floors high with the administrative offices and auditorium on the ground floor, the cafeteria, kitchens and music rooms on the second floor, and the library is alone on the top floor. The gym's east wall butts against the stage wall of the auditorium on a level even lower than the ground floor. The classrooms, shops and labs are in the three wings, each divided into two houses. The wings are connected to the central block by glass walkways on the 2nd and 3rd floors, with a courtyard on ground level. In the early years the wings were Yellow, Orange, Red, Purple, Blue and Green. Students were assigned a homeroom with students from all grades, and where they had a locker. Each of the stairwells have outside exits. The school has limited structural accommodations for wheelchair or limited mobility users. Part of the building (one wing) is used by the Eastern Townships Technical Institute - a vocational education center.