Two school construction projects in the Niagara region have been approved, thanks to a combined investment of almost $30 million from the Ontario Ministry of Education.
The District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) will receive $15.4 million in provincial funding to expand Fitch Street Public School in Welland. This will result in 205 student spaces and 49 licensed child care spaces.
The project will consist of two phases, building the addition and then working on the child care centre. Work will get underway in the coming months, with an expected completion date of September 2025. The DSBN did not provide who the architect or contractor is for the project at this time.
The project is part of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s overall $1.3 billion investment to support new school construction and expansions to existing schools, including child care spaces.
Welland is the third largest population in Niagara and has been steadily growing over the last 15 years. The DSBN took this into consideration when submitting the 2023-2024 Capital Priorities Program project submissions to the ministry last fall.
According to Legislative Assembly of Ontario spokesperson Michael Zwiep, the addition at Fitch Street Public School was among the priority needs as the school’s population has grown by over 100 students in the past two years.
In December 2023, the Ministry of Education announced Ontario’s plan to help build schools faster through a transparent, accountable and more efficient process. In the recent Capital Priorities round, school boards were encouraged to standardize the design of new school construction, identify opportunities to work together on joint-use school projects and bring forward shovel-ready proposals.
The overall investment, which is the highest ever made in a single year, supports the creation of more than 27,000 new student spaces and more than 1,700 licensed child care spaces at schools across Ontario.
Also announced recently by the Niagara Catholic District School Board (NCDSB), was $14 million in funding to build a new Catholic elementary school in south Niagara Falls.
The new school will provide 363 pupil spaces in a modern learning facility. It includes three dedicated kindergarten classrooms, 12 regular classrooms, a special education room, library, gymnasium and office.
“We are extremely grateful to the minister of education for recognizing the need for a new Catholic elementary school in south Niagara Falls,” said Danny Di Lorenzo, chair of the NDCSB.
“This part of Niagara continues to experience a surge in growth, which we see in the student population increases at some of our nearby Catholic elementary schools and Saint Michael Catholic High School. A new Catholic elementary school will ease enrolment pressures at these schools, hopefully allowing more students to attend school closer to home.”
The NCDSB did not disclose the location of the project when asked.
For the 2024-25 school year, the province is providing school boards with approximately $1.4 billion in funding to revitalize and renew aged building systems and components.