UPDATE Funding Announced for New Catholic Central High School
The Ontario government has announced funding that will help acquire land for a new Catholic Central High School in Windsor.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board will receive more than $7 million to purchase an 11-acre piece of property at 2465 McDougall Avenue, which is less than a kilometer south of the school’s current location at 441 Tecumseh Road East.
It runs all the way down to the overpass," says Board chair Fulvio Valentinis. "It's a long strip of land, it's 11-acres which is great news and it allows us the flexibility to provide the programming, provide the facilities and all of the amenities that we need to provide a welcoming and functioning high school."
The board had placed an offer, conditional upon Ministry funding, to purchase the new piece of property earlier this year.
On October 31, 2016, the province announced $26-million for a new Catholic Central High School with plans to upgrade and convert the former Windsor Arena on Wyandotte St. into a new school.
But in May of this year, the board announced the location posed a lot of challenges for a new high school and it was determined the downtown property was too small, and the heritage designation would have been a challenge to work around.
Valentinis tells AM800 News this new site will make the design and construction of the new school easier.
"By not having the constraints of a confined site, it also assists you in the construction in terms of speeding it up and in terms of cutting the cost," says Valentinis. "On several fronts, this site is able to achieve that."
“We believe the new location provides us with the opportunity and the flexibility to create a beautiful new school without the additional costs and delays that would have been associated with trying to adapt the downtown site to meet our needs,” adds Director of Education Terry Lyons. “We’re extremely grateful that the Ministry of Education saw the merits of our proposal to build at this new location.”
The plans for the new Catholic Central call for space for more than 900 students in Grades 9 to 12.
Now that funding to acquire the land has been approved, Valentinis says the board can remove conditions, complete the sale and begin the necessary steps to get shovels in the ground.
"The major hurdles which are the investigation of the site, the acquisition of the site and the funding of the site have now basically been done, which is great news," says Valentinis. "Now we've got to get our plans finalized and get them approved by the city, get the site plan approved in terms of entrances and exists from the property."
“We’re protecting what matters most by providing students and families with better schools for better learning,” said Lisa Thompson, Minister of Education. “By supporting communities like Windsor with modern, new school facilities, we’re helping to lay the groundwork for our students’ success.”
"This is exceptionally good news for the students of Catholic Central, their families, and the entire community,” said Trustee Bernie Mastromattei, who represents the ward in which CCHS is located. “The location is ideal for our students and the fact that it’s a clear site means we can complete the project much earlier than originally anticipated. I look forward to the day we can open the doors on what I’m sure will be a wonderful new building.”