A kindergarten to Grade 12 public school to be built in Forest now has a name.
Article content
Lambton Kent District School Board announced this week the new school will be called the Lambton Shores Community school. The province has approved nearly $40 million in capital funding for the project.
Article content
Trustees approved the name, recommended by a committee of board officials and representatives of schools in the area the new building will serve.
“Much work goes into choosing a name,” trustee Jayne Bryce, who chairs the naming committee, said in a release.
“Each committee member brought their own unique set of loyalties and ties from the different region or school they were representing, of course, but each member also recognized that. . . we are all moving forward together.”
The committee began with 176 suggestions from the public and whittled them down to a short list of 12, including Huron Shores, North Lambton (the name of Forest’s current high school), Nimkiikiing, Huron Coast, Huron Ridge, Blue Coast, Orchard Ridge, Lake Huron Shores, Huron Hall, Forest Community and North Woods.
Article content
The committee did an online survey to gather input on the shortlisted name. The survey also asked about options for the second part of the new name, including academy, collegiate, community, composite, district, hall and institute.
Early on, the committee decided it was seeking a historical name once applied to the area where the school will be built, or the name of a geographic area the school will serve. Forest is part of the Municipality of Lambton Shores.
The new building will replace North Lambton secondary and Aberarder Central, Kinnwood Central and Bosanquet Central elementary schools. It’s also where pupils at East Lambton, Grand Bend and Hillside elementary schools will go to high school.
Lambton Shores Community, the board’s first K-12 school, will be built on land next to the Shores Recreation Center, with space for as many as 1,186 pupils and students, and a child-care center.
Brian McKay, the board’s associate director for corporate services, said construction should begin in the spring. The school is expected to open in September 2026.
Information about the school’s design and floor plan is expected to be posted on the board’s website early next year, he said.
Share this article in your social network