It's back to the drawing board for the Catholic school board in Chatham-Kent after having some local school projects rejected by the province for three years in a row.
The Associate Director of Corporate Services and the Treasurer for the St. Clair Catholic District School Board Amy Janssens told CK News Today the school board continues to work on refining and strengthening its business cases to have a successful bid in potential future provincial grant programs.Janssens said the applications to replace the 65-year-old Ursuline College in Chatham with a new $32 million school and to build an addition at St. Anne in Blenheim were not successful because the demand for provincial funding was too great. According to Janssens, the Ministry of Education told the school board that there were a total of 290 requests from 58 school boards across the province for school capital projects valued at $3.4 billion.
The application to replace a portapak at Christ the King School in Wallaceburg was also not successful.
"On May 2, 2022, the Ministry of Education informed us that a detailed review of the business cases for our school board was completed and that the projects were not approved," said Janssens. "The ministry in the same message confirmed that demand for funding through the 2022-23 Capital Priorities Program was significant. We are hopeful for another grant program to be announced so that we can resubmit our business cases."
An update was presented at the school board meeting last week where Janssens announced some projects, such as the construction of the new elementary school in south Chatham, are moving forward.The newly retrofitted Monsignor Uyen school in the former Our Lady of Fatima school has also opened, St. Vincent was sold, and a portable has been relocated to St. Anne in Blenheim.
“The Board continues to look forward, with many additional future projects named in this report. Although they are all identified by the Board as priorities, many rely on Ministry capital funding approval after consideration of business case applications. We are ready to submit applications for funding and are hopeful for approval,” Janssens said.
The Catholic school board is also eyeing an accommodation review for the Wallaceburg planning area in 2023-2024 and wants to review the portable accommodation needs across the entire municipality during the same year.