In the words of Chief Sean Smith of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, a gleaming $43-million school has “popped up out of nowhere” on the First Nation’s traditional territory in the mushrooming Whistle Bend subdivision.

The chief made his exclamation Wednesday afternoon while addressing the dignitaries, education officials, parents and future students on hand for the school’s official opening ceremony. The facility, which will receive its formal name later this year, is the first elementary school to be constructed in Whitehorse in two decades.

“Amazing work” has gone into the building, Smith told his listeners seated in the atrium, as chattering children played nearby. “We used to have those standard boxes we would put a whole bunch of kids in and hoped they succeeded.”

The school will offer up to 425 students classes from Kindergarten to Grade 7. There were more than 200 registrations as of Wednesday.

The structure was designed and built by Ketza Construction Ltd., with Northern Front Studio as the prime consultant and architect of record. Its features include an emphasis on natural light, wood materials and flexible, collaborative spaces. Special acoustic treatments have made it notably quieter than other schools.

Classroom wings are split into pods with common learning areas, with direct access to the outdoors for each Kindergarten pod, allowing for outdoor learning.

There are independent all-gender washrooms, and the smaller of the two gyms will have a climbing wall. As safety measures, the building offers red security buttons located at various areas and security gates. Pressing the buttons will lock all the doors leading outside.

The music room can also be used as a stage, with a moveable wall and specialized lighting.

Events have been planned for by way of the kitchen life-skills lab offering two serving windows aligned with the main gym doors for a better flow of guests.

The school also reflects the Yukon government’s ambitious Our Clean Future initiative – it was designed to meet energy efficiency standards at least 35-per-cent above the National Energy Code of Canada For Buildings.

A sensory room will enable agitated or distressed students to burn off energy and calm down before they resume their daily routines.

The building is located at 33 Olive May Way, close to Whistle Bend Place. Incoming principal Jeff Cressman said there will be plenty of interaction between the residents there and the students.

Recessed wall compartments in each classroom have taken on the role of lockers.

Addressing the guests, Premier Ranj Pillai called the school “an incredible building.

“This was a tremendous amount of work by a lot of people,” he said.

The building will see its students and staff “learning together and growing together … they can learn, grow, feel safe and thrive. They will learn compassion, kindness and understanding.”

The school will teach the territory’s future doctors, nurses and other professionals, the premier said. “Today is a day to celebrate this new school and promise of the future.”

Education Minister Jeanie McLean told the guests she’d found the earlier smudging ceremony “deeply meaningful for every one of us,” and praised the positive goals of everyone involved in developing the school.

“This is a great day as we gather to see those good intentions materialize,” she said. “It is so great hearing children’s voices in this beautiful new education centre. This is the future of learning spaces in the Yukon.”

The building, McLean said, represents “a hope and a sanctuary for learning. Schools are a canvas on which students will paint their dreams and a stage upon which they will showcase their talents. To teach the next generation of Yukoners definitely takes the whole community.”

More than 95 per cent of those who worked on creating the school are Yukoners, McLean added.

Highways and Public Works Minister Nils Clarke called the building “a marvel and a testament” to the capabilities of local tradespeople. “This building is a testament to community collaboration at its core.”

Amanda Leas, the chief of the Ta’an Kwach’an Council, told the audience, “We  are here today making history. This school will help complete this growing family community.”

To have a school close to where families live is beneficial not only to the students, but to their parents as they juggle work and family responsibilities, Leas added.

During a news conference later in the afternoon, Pillai and his ministers were asked about whether the building’s size will be adequate for the coming years. During the last generation, previous governments have had a history of constructing major institutions too small for future population growth. Examples are Whitehorse General Hospital and F.H. Collins Secondary School.

McLean said the new school has been built for growth. “It’s certainly going to take a lot of pressure off the north end,” she told reporters.

With the new building’s opening, Clarke pointed out, Jack Hulland Elementary School is anticipated to have 100 fewer pupils for the next school year than it does now.

“Four hundred twenty-five students is a large elementary school,” said Clarke, acknowledging  that a decade ago, F.H. Collins was constructed too small to serve the needs at the time, let alone now.

By comparison, the city’s biggest school, Ecole Whitehorse Elementary, has an estimated 500 students.

Asked if the government is already thinking about a high school for Whistle Bend, given the neighbourhood’s explosive growth, Pillai said officials will have to monitor the potential emerging need.

“We feel good about the size of this building,” he said. “We will have to continue to be investing in elementary schools and have to think about balancing all our capital builds.”