“You even get that new school smell,” Darren Hays, the principal of F.H. Collins Secondary School, told the crowd at Wednesday evening’s official opening ceremony of the new school.

A quick snip of a ribbon made it official – it is in with the new and out with the old.

Now that students and faculty have been situated in the new school for a little more than a week, parents, students, Yukon government and First Nations officials took the time last evening to take it all in.

After receiving blessings from the Kwanlin Dün and Ta’an Kwäch’än First Nations, the ceremony turned reflective on the past and hopeful for the future, with several guest speakers.

Jessie Dawson, a Kwanlin Dün First Nation councillor, told the crowd that she hasn’t always been pro-education.

After enduring negative experiences in residential school, Dawson said, it took time for her to grasp how important learning is.

Now, having sat on three school councils, including F.H. Collins, her mindset has evolved, eventually viewing education as “much needed” for the future generation.

“There is much good to be learned,” she said.

“Learning and education is our companion throughout our lives.”

Ta’an Kwäch’än Deputy Chief Michelle Telep said the building was “more than just a place to earn a high school diploma.”

The future graduating classes of F.H. Collins can take comfort in knowing that they are in an environment where innovation and collaboration are both encouraged and empowered, Telep said.

Paying tribute to First Nations, the Daghaalhaan K’e and Dakka Kwaan dancers dazzled the crowd with several songs and a participatory component.

The Dakka Kwaan dancers invited F.H. Collins alumni and current students and staff in the audience to dance with them to a warrior song.

Education Minister Doug Graham said the dancers were the highlight of the ceremony for him.

“If we’re ever going to improve outcomes for First Nations’ children ... We need to make them proud of their traditions,” he said in an interview.

And if the dancing itself didn’t complete the ceremony, vice-principal Bruce Thompson played the bagpipes as Joe Parker and Isak Parker, the co-presidents of the F.H. Collins student council, brought framed pictures to the front of the room – the first graduating class and the newest graduating class.

The contrast of new and old didn’t end there.

Graham lauded the new $31-million school for being “tech-ready.”

“These days, students aren’t just typing up essays and making PowerPoint presentations,” he said.

“I think it is so important that we embrace this technology.”

Premier Darrell Pasloski also celebrated the flexible space, equipment and technologies of the new school.

“It’s only the eighth day in the school, but new memories are already being made,” he told the crowd.

Building a new and improved F.H. Collins, Pasloski said, was part of his Yukon Party government’s campaign promise in 2011.

“We’re here tonight because we kept that promise,” he said.

Pasloski even seamlessly added the building to the party slogan, making the Yukon the best place to live, work, play, raise a family – and go to school.

For principal Hays, the new building also represents how things change over time.

The gymnasium in the old school had a mural of the school mascot, a warrior.

Hays admitted that he had originally wanted the old mural in the new gym, but it wasn’t feasible to bring it over.

Now, a new painted warrior mural encompasses one of the gym’s only walls.

“It symbolizes that things change and good things will happen,” Hays said.

“Walls are important but it’s the people inside the walls that set the tone.”

Once the ribbon was cut, the ceremony was officially over.

Students in the school’s Food Education and Service Training program (FEAST) prepared a tasty spread for the crowd to cap the evening’s festivities, and music was provided by school band students.

The Yukon government will soon put out a tender to demolish the old building, which opened in early 1963.

The chapter of about 53 years that saw about 8,000 graduates cross the stage will draw to a close by the end of the summer – and will carry on in the bright and colourful building next door.

Principal Hays acknowledged the task of building a new school was not one without its challenges.

The opening of the new school has been greeted with some criticism in recent years, as there had been delays in its planning and building.

Even with a relatively smooth transition to the new building, concerns linger over the smaller gymnasium as well as the school’s layout and design.

“It’s been a long haul,” he said.

“(But) it’s a great feeling to be in the building now.”

More on the new school in Friday’s edition.