Here's where the TVDSB wants 8 new schools to be built
CBC
The largest school board in southwestern Ontario will ask the province to fund the construction of eight new schools to accommodate booming enrolment across the region.
Staff with the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) will ask its board members Tuesday to approve project submissions that it believes are critical to student needs.
Currently, hundreds of children are learning in portables or in at-capacity classrooms in the London area, with enrolement having hit a record high level of approximately 85,000 students. TVDSB Director Mark Fisher said earlier this month that the school board gained 6,000 additional students in the past four years.
Here are the locations, in order of priority, and the reason TVDSB staff say funding is necessary:
This school would take in students in the developing Riverbend and Byron area, including students who are currently at a crowded Byron Somerset P.S. Staff say the period to acquire the only "school block" in that part of London expires in Aug. 2024.
"Securing this block is of paramount importance to ensure that a neighbourhood school can be built in this area," the staff report said.
The town north of London continues to grow rapidly. Wilberforce P.S., which covers the Township of Lucan-Biddulph, currently has 10 portables. Staff say with growth projections, a new school is a must.
This part of the city opened the doors on a new school in 2022, and even on opening day, Summerside P.S. was at capacity with 12 portables added. Enrolment there was capped with staff saying the number of students is expected to surpass 1,000 in the next two years.
Space is so tight, some students are being sent to John P. Robarts P.S. this year.
"There is significant new development planned in this area of London and a new elementary school is required to manage this continued growth," the staff report said.
Enrolment was capped at White Oaks P.S. this past Sept. and it's currently considered a "holding school" for children in the area. Another holding school for the area is Lambeth P.S. and it's being capped in Jan. 2024.
Staff say that despite a new school being built in Talbot Village, in the southwest end, it won't be enough, and a second new elementary school is necessary.
A new subdivision is planned in Ingersoll in the southend of the town. Staff say that the two schools in the community are already at capacity, with insufficient space at the third regional school, Laurie Hawkins P.S. They say an addition is also impossible at Harrisfield P.S. because there isn't enough room on the property.
A unique arrangement is in the works in the Thamesford area with Zorra Township partnering with the TVDSB to open a joint facility that would include both a school and community space. While not finalized, staff said a new housing development in the community east of London in the former Maple Leaf processing plant will see more families move to the area.
RCMP say a man who was reported missing near Key First Nation has been found deceased.
Christy Morin says life was never the same in Alberta Avenue after the fires began.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.