French high school adding 8 classrooms
CAMBRIDGE — A high school for French-speaking students is getting $5.4 million to add eight classrooms, after students overflowed into portable classrooms.
The Liberal government announced funding Thursday. It’s the latest local project on a provincewide list of 79 school construction and expansion projects approved by the government, but not made public.
Expansion at École secondaire catholique Père-René-de-Galinée on Maple Grove Road in Cambridge will provide enough space for 178 more students.
“The school offers excellent programs and activities for the students and the funding will allow this to continue in facilities equivalent to those of the majority,” education trustee Dorothée Petit-Pas said in a statement. She’s a trustee with the Conseil scolaire catholique Mon-Avenir, the French Catholic school board.
The province announced $16 million for a new public elementary school and daycare in southwest Kitchener on Jan. 15. “Stay tuned,” former education minister Mitzie Hunter said then, asked if this region is getting cash for more school expansions.
Two days later, Hunter was appointed to a different ministry, leaving other cabinet ministers to take the spotlight in announcing school projects.
Thursday’s announcement was made by Transportation Minister Kathryn McGarry in her Cambridge riding. “Our government’s investment is great news for families in Cambridge,” she said in a statement.
The Liberal government did not say if more construction funding is on its way here as part of $784 million in funding for new schools and renovations.
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board says it has not heard if it will receive funding. The board submitted five projects for consideration by the Ministry of Education, including a new high school in southeast Kitchener, a replacement for St. Clement Catholic Elementary School, and a new elementary school in southeast Galt in Cambridge.