The Aqamnik Elementary School at the St. Mary's Band is bursting at the seams. But help is at hand: construction has begun on a brand new building.

The six-classroom school, tentatively referred to as the Aqamnik Education Centre, will be open before the next school year begins in September, said Michelle Shortridge, Manager of Housing and Capital Projects for the Band.

"We're working with a company out of Alberta, ATCO, who are pre-fabricating some of the components. They will be starting in the next couple of weeks; we are just finishing up the design. Then they will be shipped on site late June, early July. It will take four to six weeks to set up," she explained.

The existing Aqamnik School has been operated by the St. Mary's Band since 1987. At the moment, there are around 50 aboriginal and non-aboriginal children enrolled in Grades K-7 in the school's three classrooms. But once the new school is built, enrolment is expected to rise.

"We are expecting that number to grow when we have more space. Right now we are at our capacity," said Shortridge. "That building has met its useful life."

The Education Centre will be built in an empty field beside the historic St. Eugene Church. When it is opened, the school will contain six classrooms, including a multi-purpose room for use as a library and music room, as well as a kitchen, staff room, and first aid room.

"Usually the first question people ask is, 'Are you building a gym?'" said Shortridge. "We're planning a gym, but because of the tight timeframe, it probably won't be for a year or two.

"We have designed the school to be scaleable so that we can add a gym on and in the future add classrooms. That's one of the really unique things about this school project and working with ATCO - we can design it right now to add these components on."

Also in the planning stages is a biofuel district heating system for the Band. This innovative system burns wood chips for heat.

"If we do succeed in getting that, it will be the first of its kind in the area," said Shortridge.

Because the system is still in the works, the new school will be built so it is compatible with a biofuel system, but it will also contain a traditional heating system.

The Band is expecting to obtain wood chips from Tembec in the short-term, but eventually the wood will come from its own land.

"We know that on our reserve we have at least a 30-year supply of biofuel," said Shortridge. "Probably (the wood chips) would come from Tembec first and then eventually we would do some eco-restoration projects in our community and use those as well."

The old school will be turned into office space for the Band's growing staff.