Sweet relief for overcrowded London school amid boards’ building boom

A nearly completed new addition will help ease enrollment pressures this fall at one of the largest and most crowded schools in the Thames Valley District school board.

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The project at Eagle Heights elementary school on Oxford Street in London was tendered to Bronnenco Construction Ltd. at the end of May 2023 and was expected to be finished in early 2025.

Originally built for 680 pupils, Eagle Heights has had to use 18 portable classrooms to accommodate more than 1,000 pupils.

“The Thames Valley District school board is committed to addressing enrollment pressures within our board,” education director Mark Fisher said in an email. “We are proud to announce the addition at Eagle Heights Public School, which will accommodate 300 more students and increase the school’s library and administration area, and will be complete in November 2024.”

Queen’s Park at first committed $7.2 million for the expansion, but has added $2 million to project.

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Community information sessions investigating architectural designs for the project were completed in 2022.

A new school in Belmont is one step closer to being completed with news this week that the board received approval from the Ministry of Education to go to tender with the project.

The school will be built on 7th Avenue in the rural community southeast of London on land expropriated by the board – the first time it has taken such action after a deal couldn’t be reached with the property’s owner.

In June 2020, the Ministry of Education approved the long-awaited school that local officials hoped would open for the 2023-2024 school year.

The $22-million school will have space for 507 students and is expected to open in the 2026-27 school year.

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“This is another important investment in education for Elgin-Middlesex-London,” Progressive Conservative MPP Rob Flack said in a statement. “Belmont has a growing population coupled with strong economic growth, which is in line with what we’re experiencing in Elgin and Middlesex counties.”

Over the past few years the Ministry of Education has approved a raft of new schools as the population of London and surrounding areas continues to swell with people moving from the Greater Toronto Area and outside of Canada. Both of the region’s major school boards are experiencing such explosive growth that many schools have had to rely on a double-digit number of mobiles or have their enrollment capped as temporary measures.

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NEW SCHOOLS OPENING SOON

Thames Valley schools opening in 2025-26 school year:

Thames Valley schools opening in the 2026-2027 school year:

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London District Catholic school board:

• St. Gabriel elementary school in London is on track to open January 2025. The 507-pupil school is in northwest London off Burloak Drive, near Hyde Park Road and Sunningdale Road. Cost is unknown.
• A $51 million secondary school in London is on track to open in fall 2026. It will be built on the grounds near Regina Mundi Catholic College at 5200 Wellington Rd. S.,
• An $4.9 million addition to St. Anne’s elementary in St. Thomas is almost complete.
• A $20.6 million elementary school in Kilworth-Komoka west of London with space for 424 pupils and a five-room child-care center is in planning phase.

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