New Catholic elementary school set to open in Sarnia

Vice-Principal Tina Jarvis says the natural light in the new Gregory A. Hogan elementary school is her favorite thing about the $24.2-million building set to open on Sarnia’s Rapid Parkway after March break.

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She was there Thursday with teachers setting up classrooms to be ready for the move. Several construction workers still were busy finishing work in the building.

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“The windows in this place are incredible,” Jarvis said. “It’s kind of surreal we’re actually moving into this building in a week.”

Pupils at the current Gregory A. Hogan elementary school site on Hogan Drive “are extremely excited” about the upcoming move, Jarvis said.

“This experience I’m getting right now is one of a kind,” Garvis said about working in a new school.

Sarah Phillion, a Grade 1-2 teacher setting up her classroom Thursday, said she was “just vibrating” with anticipation.

“It’s an overwhelming process, but so worth it,” she said.

Approaching the final stretch of a long school year, “it has breathed new life into us,” Phillion said. “I’m even excited for September to get to see all of the things the kids get to enjoy and deserve.”

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She said the technology available at the old site “is good, but this is top notch.”

A shortage of window glass in the wake of the pandemic was one of the factors that delayed the completion of construction from the original date of the end of December to March, said Scott Johnson, education director with the St. Clair Catholic District School Board.

“March break, we’ll get the furniture and equipment moved over and we will be green lit to start school the first Monday after” the break, Johnson said.

“It is unbelievable,” he said about how the building turned out. “It is bright, it is collaborative, it is flexible.”

The school was built by Wellington Builders of Forest. “They’ve been exceptional,” Johnson said.

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The school’s double gym “is going to be an incredible facility for students and community members to use,” he said.

A movable dividing wall will allow the gym to be used by two classes at the same time, plus it has a stage that can be lowered into place when needed.

A two-storey learning commons, the new name for school libraries, is off the main entrance and has “lots of natural light,” Johnson said.

The building has a large number of windows, in part, due to the pandemic.

“Post-COVID, windows have to be able to open,” Johnson said about requirements for new schools. “When we built schools 10 years ago, your windows were shut,” he said.

It also has a personal protective equipment storage room next to the office which is something new, Johnson said.

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The two-storey building includes an elevator for staff and pupils with mobility needs.

The next step after the move will be renovating the former Gregory A. Hogan school site which will become the new home of Sacred Heart elementary school.

“We’re waiting for final ministry approval to increase the capacity of the gym,” Johnson said.

Once those renovations are completed, Sacred Heart is scheduled to move to Hogan Drive and its building in Sarnia is expected to be sold.

Johnson said he was able to take members of the Hogan family on a tour of the new building named for the late Catholic school board trustee.

The family donated $200,000 so the board could add a community room in the new school.

“This will be used by staff and students during the daytime,” as well as for professional instruction sessions for staff from across school systems, Johnson said.

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“Evenings and weekends, community groups have access,” he said.

The school yard already has grass and an asphalt walkway around the perimeter that will be accessible to neighbors out for a walk evenings and weekends.

Homes are expected to surround the school on three sides eventually and it can be seen by traffic passing on Highway 402.

“It’s a great showpiece for the community and for our system,” Johnson said.

There is also a five-room child-care facility connected to the building that will be operated by London Bridge with the opening expected in the fall, Johnson said.

“They have their own yard and their own entrances, completely separate from the school,”

The learning commons in the school extends over two floors “and it has as much technology as books,” Johnson said.

The classrooms also come with digital technology and whiteboards in place of chalk blackboards, plus lighting with eight different settings and digital clocks which also display messages.

Gregory A. Hogan, a French immersion school, currently has approximately 580 pupils and the new site has a capacity of 659, Johnson said.

“We have three empty classrooms to allow for growth which we anticipate is coming,” he said.

“It will be our biggest school in the system.”

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