Lethbridge Polytechnic’s oldest and possibly most re-purposed building, The Barn, has entered a new era as the official home of the Southern Alberta Collegiate Institute (SACI).
A partnership between Lethbridge Polytechnic, seven southern Alberta school divisions, career support organizations and local business and industry, the collegiate focuses on pathway programs for students in grades 7 to 12 in the areas of trades, agriculture and health care.
While dual credit and career exploration programs have taken place in the polytechnic’s main building for several years, the renovation of The Barn means junior high and high school students now have a dedicated space for learning.
“Our collegiate program is really busy; we’re filled with a number of exploratory and dual credit programs,” says Joelle Reynolds, the polytechnic’s Youth Initiatives director. “We’ve slowly been piloting new courses and programs for the collegiate in our existing spaces, but with every year of piloting comes another influx of students. With our own space, we can really program everything that we want to do.”
The renovated 1,195-square-metre building on the east side of campus offers automotive, combined carpentry and pipe trades and electrical shops, and health care and agriculture-focused classrooms. Programs for grades 7 to 9 include career exploration workshops and events while high school students are offered dual credit courses and pre-employment programs.
“I started the dual credit program in 2024 and would highly recommend it to all high school students,” says Automotive Service Technician apprentice Ashleigh Nelson. “I was able to sample multiple trades, and it helped me confirm my goal of becoming an Automotive Service Technician.”
Long before becoming a hub for young learners to connect, and even before the polytechnic existed, The Barn served as a dude ranch hangout, the venue for Lethbridge’s first rock-and-roll concert (Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956), a roller rink and, more recently, a student pub.
“People have fond memories of time spent in The Barn,” says Reynolds. “And the funny thing is, from the outside it looks almost exactly the same; you wouldn’t know that anything has changed until you go inside. The inside is absolutely unrecognizable.”
The new space doesn’t house all of the trades the collegiate offers, so the main Lethbridge Polytechnic building will continue to be used for some programming, while alleviating logistical pressures.
Alberta Education provided $5.9 million in capital funding to Palliser School Division – the collegiate’s lead K to 12 partner – in April 2023, in addition to $798,000 in start-up operational funding.
Renovations to The Barn began in the fall of 2023 and the building will be ready for SACI programming in fall 2025.
“Just having a space to anchor [the collegiate] to, to visualize it and have people come through and see what we do, and see students in action, it’s really important,” says Palliser’s Director of Learning Jason Kupery. “Lethbridge Polytechnic has been extremely gracious and accommodating in terms of the needs of our students; it’s been a really wonderful partnership.”
The Pathway Partnership of Southern Alberta, which serves as the collegiate’s advisory body, includes the polytechnic, Palliser, Lethbridge, Holy Spirit, Horizon, Westwind, Livingstone Range and Grasslands public school divisions, CAREERS: The Next Generation, Career Transitions, Southland International Trucks, Advanced Ag and Intercontinental Truck Body.
Kupery says trying to navigate the needs of seven school divisions and several external partners can be challenging at times, but he says it’s been a great opportunity to “share the load” not only in terms of finances, but with planning and decision making as well.
“It’s nice to have that input from other school divisions and to hear what they would like to see happen in the future,” he says. “It’s helped us be more adaptable, and it’s helped us make positive changes for students in southern Alberta.”
Reynolds agrees.
“It’s really something for us all to be proud of,” she says. “As programs draw to a close, we hear students say things like, ‘this really developed my sense of confidence,’ or ‘I didn’t like going to school before because it’s not the way I like to learn,’ or ‘this gave me a reason to think about the future.’”
Reynolds and Kupery also point to the friendships students make as another major benefit of the collegiate.
“They meet their people,” says Kupery. “Because they’re like-minded individuals from other school divisions, it’s neat to be able to make friends … with people who learn and grow and think like they do.”
“It’s a beautiful outcome to witness,” adds Reynolds. “It makes all the difference for them to feel that sense of belonging.”
Lethbridge Polytechnic is also part of the Prairie Sky Collegiate – a partnership with Grasslands and Medicine Hat public school divisions – and the PEAKS Collegiate Campus, a partnership with the Livingstone Range School Division.
For more information on SACI, visit www.southernalbertacollegiateinstitute.ca.
