Enrollment growth at St. Pat’s prompts renovations

A growing number of students at St. Patrick’s secondary school in Sarnia has prompted some recent renovations.

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The school of about 1,500 students has seen strong Grade 9 enrollment over the past few years, requiring more space, said Tony Montanino, the St. Clair Catholic District School Board’s facility services manager.

About $600,000 in work recently wrapped up to convert a computer lab at St Pat’s into a classroom, and add some enclosed meeting rooms in the library.

“With technology changing, gone are the days of the old desktop and these big computer labs where they were these fixed pieces of equipment,” Montanino said.

“Now the computer labs are laptops that students just pull out and use. So we’re kind of repurposing … and reutilizing those spaces.”

The project, contracted to Dorchester’s Aveiro Construction, also included upgrades to the gymnasium dividing curtains at the school, so it can be split into thirds, Montanino said.

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Construction finished this month, he said.

Recently report to trustees with the board covering Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent shows enrollment at St. Pat’s grew by about 100 students, or 7.5 per cent compared to fall 2023.

Overall board enrollment is up about 3.5 per hundred year over year, to 9,300, the report says.

Meanwhile, the St. Pat’s upgrades are one of many projects the school board has been spending on.

In Port Lambton, a $4.1 million project creating a new accessible vestibule area, renovating the administration office, the gymnasium, upgrading the library and washrooms, recently finished, Montanino said.

Deficiencies like chipped paint or receptacles that need realigning are being sorted by Aveiro, Montanino said, but the project caps a $9.6 million effort over two years that also saw new classrooms and a childcare center built at the school with room for 140 students.

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Enrollment is just shy of that mark, he said.

In Sarnia, contracts to Wellington Builders of Forest, to transform the former Gregory A. Hogan elementary school site on Hogan Drive into a new home for Sarnia’s Sacred Heart school, are expected to take until next summer, Montanino said.

Collectively about $5.7 million, the contracts include expanding the gym, creating a new library and learning commons area, repurposing some classrooms for that space and updating classrooms and washrooms, he said. The school will have room for about 360 students when it’s complete.

Enrollment in September is expected to be about 300, he said.

Some outside pathway updates at St. Pat’s in the spring for $78,000, a new $1.5 million roof at Holy Trinity school in Sarnia, and larger, more accessible entrances at St. Joseph school in Corunna for $390,000 have also kept the board busy, he said .

Typically, the board spends about $6 million per year on capital upgrades, he said, but spending increased this year after years of planning for the two Sacred Heart projects.

The Sarnia Sacred Heart project is also linked to a new $24.2 million home for Gregory A. Hogan school, which opened earlier this year.

The current Sacred Heart site on Sarnia’s Lecaron Avenue is slated to close in 2025, with Sacred Heart’s school community moving to the old Gregory A. Hogan site on Hogan Drive.

Expect a board return to normal capital spending in 2025, Montanino said.

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