$51M Catholic high school to be built in London, replacing Regina Mundi

The London District Catholic school board will be building a new, $51-million high school in the city, education ministry officials announced Thursday.

Article content

The new Catholic high school will be built on the grounds near Regina Mundi Catholic College at 5200 Wellington Rd. S., near London’s southern edge. Regina Mundi, who became a high school in 1987 in what was a former junior seminary, is set to be torn down, The Free Press reported earlier this week.

Article content

Ontario’s education minister, Stephen Lecce, was in London Thursday to announce the new school, which he predicted will be “a modern, state-of-the-art” high school for 700 students, the same number enrolled at Regina Mundi, with “ an emphasis” on skilled trades and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education.

“I’m excited to be here,” Lecce said, “to get this done, as we promised the people of London.”

Article content

Construction likely will start next year. The new school, which will still be called Regina Mundi, is expected to be opened by 2026.

The Catholic board’s education director, Vince Romeo, called it “amazing news” for London students. “We’re able to move forward and build a purpose-built, modern facility designed to serve the school community.”

The Catholic school board has applied to city hall for a permit to demolish Regina Mundi. The school sits on a 17-hectare (42-acre) site. The board’s head office is on the same parcel of land, but will not be affected.

Including Regina Mundi, there are six Catholic high schools in London and nine across the school board. There are also 43 elementary schools with a total of 24,000 students from kindergarten to Grade 12.

Article content

Thursday’s comes amid explosive growth in both the London Catholic and Thames Valley school announcement boards, which needed a combined 70 new laptops to house an additional 6,200 students this school year, enough to fill 12 average-sized elementary schools. That’s also created a staffing crunch and board officials say they are hiring.

For the Catholic board, enrollment was up by more than 2,200 in September over the previous school year. The Catholic board also is building new elementary schools in northwest and northeast London.

The number of students on the board “is very quickly growing,” says Debbie Jordan, the Catholic board’s executive superintendent of business and corporate services. “Because of the unexpected growth in the area, we did design the school for future growth.”

Article content

MPP Rob Flack (Elgin-Middlesex-London) added: “By the time we get it built, we will be looking to expand it right away.”

Lecce said the province has approved eight schools worth $90 million in London’s school boards since 2018.

“We want these projects to have shovels in the ground so we’re cutting red tape and working with the city and the school boards to expedite delivery,” he said. “We fully understand that building schools in Ontario takes too long.”

In 1985, Ontario’s Catholic schools were granted full government funding, the only province to fully fund both Catholic and public boards.

[email protected]

Twitter.com/HeatheratLFP

Article content