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Two days before Premier Doug Ford pulls the trigger on a spring election, Queen’s Park unveiled $1.3 billion in funding for 30 new schools and additions, including a $100-million Catholic high school in north London.
The London District Catholic school board received funding for three schools: more than $140 million for high schools in London and St. Thomas and $31 million for an elementary school in southwest London.
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Officials at the London District Catholic board were caught off-guard when the province announced the funding in a news release Monday because such announcements are typically made at news conferences featuring provincial politicians.
“I am absolutely thrilled to embark on the biggest school construction boom in the history of the LDCSB,” said Gabe Pizzuti, chair of the board of trustees. “The north London high school is a much-needed project. This is the result of unprecedented growth.”
The Thames Valley District school board got the green light to build a kindergarten to Grade 4 elementary school in fast-growing Thamesford, as well as elementary schools in southwest and north central London.
The school board bought a $10.45-million property for the new school last month through the Ministry of Education’s land priorities fund. The school will be located at Knott Drive, Stewart Avenue and Roy McDonald Drive, just north of Exeter Road.
The land purchase is just one of several new schools projected by the London-area board across Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin counties and London, said Ben Puzanov, the school board’s director of planning.
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Boar chair Beth Mail did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The newly announced schools will create 25,000 new student spaces and 1,600 child care spaces, the Ministry of Education said in a release.
“This is the second consecutive year that our government has made historic investments in new school construction and school expansion, as part of the government’s Build Ontario plan,” said Jill Dunlop, minister of education. “Under our plan, schools are being built faster and more efficiently than ever before so more students have access to a place to learn and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.”
Both the Thames Valley and the London Catholic school boards have been racing to build new schools amid projections that show London and surrounding Middlesex County will add the equivalent to a city the size of Windsor in population growth during the next 25 years.
NEW SCHOOL FUNDING
LONDON DISTRICT CATHOLIC BOARD
North London secondary school, $100.5 million, 1,999 students and 88 child-care spaces
Southwest London elementary school, $31.1 million, 655 students and 88 child-care spaces
St. Thomas secondary school, $41.6 million, 826 students
THAMES VALLEY DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
Thamesford junior kindergarten to Grade 4 elementary school, $23.5 million, 479 students and 88 child-care spaces
Southwest London elementary school, $43.6 million, 934 students and 88 child-care spaces
North central London elementary school, $23.3 million, 88 child-care spaces
@HeatheratLFP
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