The $14.8-million James Park elementary school is a fine-looking structure that looks more like a college campus than a primary school, with high wood ceilings, decorative flourishes, beautiful landscaping and forward-thinking design.
But as anyone will know once they take a tour, James Park isn't just a new school - it's a statement of where the education system is going. No longer are kids taught to be sponges in small classrooms, they must learn to be architects of their own learning.
And why not? It makes a lot of sense for a building to mirror changes being wrought on the education system and the fact that the littlest students will see the benefits first makes a lot of sense.
Who better than these youngsters to learn how to work together cooperatively in expandable classrooms - or classrooms with no walls at all - for they must learn how to engage with the world?
Who better than these children to have access to technology and get to know it for its strengths and its weaknesses, for it will be their learning partner for life?
Who better than these youngsters to enjoy beautiful landscaping with "creeks" made of river rock wetted by natural rainfall from stylish concrete siphons? These youngsters will be the planet's environmental stewards one day.
Will the transition take time? No doubt. Those high ceilings amplify sound, so it's a noisy place to work.
The kids and their teachers are used to a 50-year-old cinderblock building with narrow hallways and small, closed classrooms with doors on them. With so much open space, kids will have to learn how to modulate their own behaviour. With freedom, they'll learn, comes responsibility.
For James Park teachers, the move will mean learning new routines, figuring out how to use the new technology and the open spaces and to make them beneficial for education. But judging by opening day on Monday, many of these teachers have already made the move or are in transition. And why not?
They know better than most that making the changes today will encourage an anywhere/anytime education philosophy for the learners of tomorrow.
