New St. Martin welcomes students
More than 400 excited West Lincoln children returned from their summer vacation to be welcomed to a new school Tuesday.
Niagara Catholic District School Board opened the doors of a new St. Martin Catholic School after 21 months of construction at a cost of about $10 million.
“This has been a long time coming and there’s a great deal of excitement, a great deal of anticipation,” principal Chris Zanuttini told students as they arrived at the school at the intersection of Regional Road 20 and Streamside Drive, while members of Blessed Trinity Secondary School’s band pounded drums to welcome them.
Zanuttini said he, too, had been waiting with anticipation for the school to open its doors, “to see the smiles on the faces of the boys and girls as they enter the building for the very first time.”
“It has been nothing but ecstatic to see them come in,” he said.
At 3,902 square metres, the school is more than 460 square metres larger than the 51-year-old building it replaced.
But in years to come, the school that was just built to accommodate about 465 students is likely to become larger yet.
West Lincoln Mayor Doug Joyner said there is substantial construction planned for the property surrounding the school.
As many as 1,000 homes are planned for property across Regional Road 20 from the school and work is underway on a townhouse development next door.
“You’re looking at about 800 to 1,000 new homes in the next three to five years. This school has the potential to grow exponentially over the next three years,” Joyner said.
The board’s education director, John Crocco, said the school was designed with expansion in mind, with plumbing and electrical services ready to go when the student population outgrows the existing building.
“When we build an addition it’ll be cost-efficient,” he said. “The board really considered all of those aspects when building this site.”
Despite population growth projections, Crocco said school boards are required to design schools for current enrolment, because new homes don’t necessarily mean an increase in the student population. If, for instance, a townhouse development is built next door, “there might not be any children.”
Although several large school expansions have taken place in the past few years, St. Martin is the first new school built by the Catholic board since 2010 when Our Lady of Fatima opened its doors in St. Catharines.
Crocco said the old St. Martin school site will eventually be offered to other public entities, including school boards and the diocese. If those organizations are not interested in the building, it will be put up for sale.