School in inner city 'treasure' for pupils Argyle gets $2.3 million for expansion and renovations Maxime Mckim was lost in the crammed corridors of Dakota Collegiate, but the St. Vital student found herself again in a tiny pocket of Point Douglas. She's one of 168 grades 10 to 12 students from throughout Winnipeg who couldn't cope with a traditional high school setting, but is thriving at Argyle Alternative High School, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it building tucked into a patch of green at the foot of the Disraeli Freeway.

The Winnipeg School Division school will celebrate $2.3 million of expansion and renovations with a ceremony Nov. 18.

While several schools in the city operate off-campus classes in townhouses and empty stores for students who cannot learn in a traditional setting, Argyle is the province's only "off-campus" high school, said principal Robert Riel.

Argyle has 13 teachers, five teacher's aides, a career counsellor, a drug abuse counsellor, and two guidance counsellors.

"These students come here to feel safe, and (so as) not to be ridiculed," he said.

Argyle offers all the basic core subjects students need to apply to university, he said.

Very flexible

"We're on a first-name basis here. We're very flexible -- some students are living on their own. They need the flexibility that they can work and go to school," Riel said. "It's very informal, but there's a respect there too" which is reciprocal between staff and students.

Students work at their own pace within each classroom. If they need to miss a few days of class to go to work, they pick up at the same place when they return, Riel said.

Argyle has 168 students and a capacity of 180, and Riel expects soon to start running a waiting list. Because there is "continuous intake", students can enroll any day in September, and twice a month through the end of April.

"Basically, I wanted a school that could meet my individual needs, and not pack me with 1,000 students and label me with a number," Mckim said. "I visited (Argyle), and I thought, 'Wow!'

"Everyone knows who you are -- it's very warm here. Dakota has so many cliques. I'm just so fortunate to be in this sort of school. You don't go through the pain you go through in high school, all the bullying and all the teasing."

"It's a treasure of a place in inner city Winnipeg. If it wasn't for Argyle, we would lose them, and I was one of them, frankly," said Argyle grad, MP Pat Martin (NDP-Winnipeg Centre).

"Every kid deserves a second chance, or a third or fourth chance," Martin said.

Opportunity

"If Argyle wasn't there for me when I was having difficult times -- who knows? I certainly wouldn't have had the opportunity to finish high school and go on to bigger and better things," Martin said.

Riel said the $2.3 million-project doubled the school's size.

The renovation includes a new large art room, two science labs, a computer lab and an infant lab, all of which freed up five classrooms.

The infant lab has eight babies aged two months to two years, who receive care from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The student-parents, eight moms and one dad, must carry a full course-load that includes food and nutrition and family studies.

"We have a new multi-purpose room. There was never a meeting room in the school. We offer the Y for gym -- we'll give them bus passes," he said.

The renovations included a small cafeteria. "You get soup, sandwich and a juice for $1.30," he said. And the school will cover half the cost of a monthly bus pass for students.

Thanks to a police donation of confiscated hydroponic equipment, the school grows herbs and vegetables.

Argyle's pride and joy is a film and video production lab, financed through $20,000 of government and corporate grants. Already, students are calling after seeing posters for the program plastered around downtown and the Exchange District.

The video production program is so new, Riel said, "There's no curriculum in Manitoba for it now," so teacher Dave Berg is writing one.