Preparations for Purcell Collegiate School’s first full school year is seeing significant input from ?aq’am and the Ktunaxa Nation.
Purcell Collegiate begins operations in September of this year, utilizing space with St. Eugene Mission Resort and the College of the Rockies Cranbrook campus.
Head of School Duncan Macleod says the decision was made last Spring to go ahead with the school’s first year before their campus on Purcell Golf Course was completed.
He says it was ?aq’am Chief Joe Pierre’s idea to board students at St Eugene as Purcell Collegiate gets its start.
“The ?aq’am community has been a really, really strong partner for Purcell Collegiate,” Macleod says. “Its an infusing input for us in terms of our ability to work with and to engage the reconciliation process at a foundational level.”
Macleod says he is proud Purcell Collegiate will have a strong connection to the ?aq’am community and the Ktunaxa Nation.
He says its an opportunity to engrain Truth and Reconciliation into the school’s foundations.
“I think having the opportunity to engage it in that way and at that level is something that we are both appreciative of and cognizant of,” Macleod says. “Just in terms of how important this time is historically for Canada, as we move forward as a country and honestly as a planet.”
Macleod says the international boarding school is targeting a population of 60 students when its first year starts in late September.
Organizers plan to have the school’s core campus prepared at Purcell Golf by September 2026.
– Duncan Macleod, Head of School – Purcell Collegiate School
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