Province commits $2.3M more to Errol Village school expansion

Expansion of Plympton-Wyoming’s Errol Village elementary school is expected to begin this summer after a $2.3-million top-up from the province.

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The Education Ministry initially approved $3.8 million in 2020 to add two classrooms and a three-room child-care facility, but but cost estimates climbed and the ministry boosted project funding to $6.1 million.

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“The cost of the project increased due to the national inflation rate as well as overall increases in material and labor costs,” said John Howitt, education director at the Lambton Kent District school board.

“We went back to the ministry, and they were good enough to top up (funding) to make sure the project could continue as planned.”

The school, in a fast-growing area of ​​Plympton-Wyoming near Camlachie, was built to handle 190 pupils but has about 250 pupils and uses some portable classrooms.

And “the area is continuing to grow,” he added.

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Along with two new classrooms, an “exciting piece” of the project is “a full three-room independent child-care hub for infant, toddler and pre-school” kids, Howitt said. It will have room for 49 licensed child-care spaces.

“There currently is no child care in the facility, so it’s good news,” Howitt said.

Plans include a driveway and parking area for the child-care facility, he said.

Plans are to begin construction this summer “so that we can open next spring,” Howitt said.

“Any time we have construction going on while school is in session, we ensure that there is clear separation” between the project and pupils, he said. “Student safety is always foremost in our minds.”

A report is expected to go to the school board in June “to update our plans around consolidations (and) boundary reviews,” Howitt said.

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The board’s total student population seems “to have plateaued right now,” he said, “but we know there still are families making their way to our region.”

Planning continues for the board’s first kindergarten to Grade 12 school in Forest.

The province has approved about $40 million for the new Lambton Shores Community school to be built near the Shores Recreation Centre.

When it opens, the combined elementary and secondary school will replace Aberarder Central, Kinnwood Central and Bosanquet Central elementary and North Lambton secondary schools. It’s also expected to include a child-care center.

“The architects are continuing to finish designs and costs are being reviewed with the Ministry of Education,” Howitt said. “It’s still our intention to break ground later in 2024 for opening in September of 2026.”

Howitt said a school board transition committee is preparing for the new school’s opening.

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