THUNDER BAY – The province will spend $23.2 million to build a new south-side elementary school and make renovations to Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute to accommodate students from the soon-to-close Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute.
Liberal MPP Bill Mauro (Thunder Bay-Atikokan), a Churchill graduate himself, said the move was made to help Lakehead Public Schools save money and operate fewer facilities, faced with declining enrolment across the board.
“It’s the end of a chapter of history and the beginning of a new one for the board and for students at Lakehead Public Schools,” Mauro told those in attendance on Friday at a news conference held at the board’s Sills Street office.
More than $19 million will be spent to construct the new dual-tract elementary school, which will be situated on the grounds currently inhabited by Churchill. The new school, expected to house 745 students when it opens in September 2019, will be populated by students from Agnew H. Johnston Public School and Edgewater Park Public School.
Churchill, slated for closure, will be torn down after the 2017-2018 school year, its students transferring to the refurbished Westgate Collegiate, the second time in a little more than a decade the school has absorbed classed from a shuttered school, the last time occurring when Fort William Collegiate shut its doors.
The new elementary school, yet to be named, will be modeled after the recently built Woodcrest Public School, which opened its doors in 2007.
David Wright, the board’s business superintendent, said the upgrades at Westgate will cost just shy of $4 million and will be extensive.
“The cafetorium we’re going to build is similar to Superior CVI’s, so it will be a space that really supports the dramatic arts program at Westgate, which is a very popular program,” Wright said. “It will support the whole school community.
“We’re going to look at exercise facilities, refreshing the tech shops and then of course additional parking and stuff like that.”
Mauro said the money will come from the province’s school consolidation capital fund and helps boards eliminate excess space.
“That is costs the boards are carrying on their books that they would probably prefer not to,” Mauro said, adding proposals must demonstrate cost savings to qualify.
Ian MacRae, the board’s director of education, said the closures will save taxpayers “in the hundreds of thousands” annually.
The province is also funding the consolidation of Kingsway Park and Hyde Park public schools.
The board was unsuccessful earlier this year in its attempt to close Superior Collegiate and moves students to Hammarskjold High School. Superior would have then been repurposed as a super elementary school, allowing the board to close Vance Chapman, C.D. Howe and St. James public schools. The board of trustees voted down that plan.
MacRae said they will look at school inventory on the north side on a year-to-year basis, but aren’t in a hurry to revisit the proposed closures.
