Public board believes six new schools still a go
Ford government at Queen’s Park hasn’t changed construction plans
A change in provincial government has not affected plans by the Greater Essex County District School Board to build six new schools over the next three years.
“We’re moving ahead,” said Todd Awender, the board’s superintendent of accommodations. Just last week in the London area, parents within the Thames Valley District School Board received letters about slowed timelines and delays to that board’s plans for new builds, two of which were scheduled to open in 2020. London school board officials blamed delays on a Doug Ford government review of projects inherited from the Liberals. “Everything is still going on here,” Awender said.
All the projects were approved by the previous Liberal government. The ambitious construction list includes $44 million granted by the Ministry of Education for a new K-12 school in Kingsville, $24.3 million for a new dual high school in Amherstburg, $15.3 millionforanewNorthShoreFrench immersion elementary school in Lakeshore, $15.2 million for a new Giles Campus French immersion elementary school in Windsor, $13.2 million for an Eastwood/ Parkview combined elementary school and $9.1 million for a new Prince Andrew elementary school in LaSalle.
Awender said projects involving an addition to Queen Elizabeth elementary in Leamington and a new child-care facility attached to Essex elementary school are also moving forward.
At the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board, spokesman Stephen Fields said there has been no word from the government about the initiative to replace Catholic Central secondary with a $26-million school on the site of the former Windsor Arena. That project was approved two years ago, but remains locked in negotiations between the city and the board over the site.
The six new public board builds plus the Queen Elizabeth addition and the Essex child care come with an estimated price tag of $120 million. That doesn’t include the cost of land acquisitions. Finalizing a site for new facilities in Kingsville and Lakeshore remains a work in progress. The ministry approved the Kingsville K-12 school in April 2016 and the North Shore school in November 2015.
“We still have not purchased a property,” Awender said of North Shore. “We did have a meeting last week with the municipality and the developer, which was positive.” As for Kingsville, Awender said “every site and every situation is different and brings different challenges with it.”
Funding approval for a new high school in Kingsville preceded approval for merging General Amherst and Western into one building, but a new location for the dual school has already been secured at Amherstburg ’s Centennial Park. “When you get approved for funding you go forward,” Awender said. “And whatever (site) is ready first, you keep going.”
The goal is to have the new dual high school open by 2020-21. The board hopes to have the new child-care facility in Essex ready for September 2019, and the addition at Queen Elizabeth ready during the 2019-20 school year. The board hopes to move into the new Prince Andrew by September 2020, into the Eastwood/ Parkview facility by December 2020 and into the Giles Campus, planned for the site of the former International Playing Card building, sometime in 2021.