Originally built in a field in the middle of nowhere to serve mostly rural families, Chestermere High School (CHS) celebrated its 55th anniversary with an assembly at the school Dec. 11.
“Chestermere High School Remains a place to meet the student’s needs,” said Principal Jordan Fenton.
CHS still serves students over a wide geographic area including Langdon, Chestermere and Dalmead.
“They come together as one community,” said Fenton of his students.
“The school has always been a positive one where students can get involved in a multitude of activities,” he said.
The biggest change to the school over the years has been the need to adapt to the enormous growth in the area CHS serves.
The school celebrated the anniversary at their regular semester end assembly.
“It’s always important to take pride in where you’ve come from,” said Fenton.
In attendance at the anniversary assembly were several CHS alumni, including Sandra MacDonald who was a student at the school during its first year.
A memory that stands out to MacDonald from her time at school is of the very cold winter they had, not unlike this December’s weather.
“Mr. Southern had a rule girls had to wear skirts,” she said.
MacDonald and some of her classmates rode the bus for almost an hour to get to school.
“So my father came to the school and had a little visit with Mr. Southern,” she said, “we wore jeans for the winter time.”
Other than the expansion of the school buildings, MacDonald thinks that much of the school has managed to stay the same over the years.
“There’s still that good feeling amongst the students,” she said.
She knows this first hand because in addition to being an alumnus, she is also the grandmother of a current student, the third generation of her family to attend the school.
“The bus driver that drove me to school, drove my daughter to school and if he’d waited one more year to retire he would have driven my grandkids too,” she said.
