Sarnia St. Pat’s high school track set for $1-million upgrade

Outdoor track and field facilities at St. Patrick’s secondary school in Sarnia are about to get a makeover.

The St. Clair Catholic District school board and the French-language Conseil scolaire catholique Providence board, which owns a portion of the site where the work will be done, will pay for the project, expected to cost just more than $1-million.

Plans are to install a rubberized track, long jump and triple jump runway and pit, javelin runway, high jump runway, discus circle and fenced cage, bleacher pad, perimeter fencing and conduits for future electrical power boxes, the St. Clair Catholic District school board said in a news release.

The rubberized track will have six full lanes as well as eight lanes on a 100-metre stretch.

“There’s currently a gravel track at St. Patrick’s which really hasn’t been maintained since the pandemic,” said Scott Johnson, education director for the St. Clair District Catholic school board.

“At this point, it’s really not effective for training or competitive purposes.”

It’s a situation that has left both high school student athletes and elementary school pupils with the board without a track in Sarnia on which to train, Johnson said.

“A group of people this year worked very, very hard to come up with a plan,” he said.

Teachers, coaches, principals, board staff and members of the Lambton Catholic Sports Athletic Council worked with Cornerstone Architecture and track consultant, RK and Associates, on a design for the project, the board said.

“Both boards are working together to design and build this track so their students and our students can benefit from it,” Johnson said.

The amount each board will pay will be determined by an enrollment-based cost-sharing agreement. Based on enrollment numbers last fall, the French-language board’s share would be seven per cent, according to a news release.

”This project underscores our commitment to fostering a well-rounded educational experience for our students,” Carolyn Bastien, interim education director with the French-language board, said in a news release.

“We are appreciative of our longstanding and continued partnership with the St. Clair Catholic District school board, whose leadership has made this project possible,” Bastien said.

“We’re hoping one year from now we’re able to use this track,” Johnson said.

This year’s track meet for the board’s elementary schools was hosted by Lambton Central secondary school in Petrolia at its track and field facility, Johnson said.

He said the board is thankful it was able to use the Petrolia school’s facility “but certainly we would love to have our elementary county students coming to St. Pat’s and seeing the school where they might be going to high school later on” and “we ‘d like a track where our secondary students can train right there.

The project funded by the two school boards may be just the beginning for improvements to the track and field facilities at St. Pat’s.

A group of teachers and coaches are interested in fundraising “to bump up the track over time to even better than what we’re putting in,” Johnson said.

“We’re certainly open to that happening.”