The St. Clair Catholic District School Board (SCCDSB) has big plans in the new year for new and renovated elementary schools in Chatham.
On January 10, 2018, the school board will be marking one of many milestones to come for the new elementary school set to be built in north Chatham. At 11am, a "blessing of the ground" celebration will be held at the school's location at 801 McNaughton Ave. W.
"We're going to gather our community together to bless the ground where we're going to build this new school -- which will be a collaboration and consolidation of three of our existing schools into one very vibrant school community," says Deb Crawford, director of education designate.
She says the new school is going to have a very modern design on an eight-acre property that will be fairly close for many students.
"I think it's going to be a really beautiful school site," she says. "A lot of attention has been made to making sure we have a lot of natural light [and] a beautiful atrium/ worship space."
The new north Chatham school is expected to open in the fall of 2019.
However, the north school is not all the Catholic school board will be working on in the upcoming year.
Crawford says they're still working on finding a location for the south Chatham school.
"We're trying to find somewhere that's central in south Chatham," she says. "We've been working on this for a while. It's taking us longer than we thought but we want to make this as central to our families as we possibly can."
The board is also making plans for the upcoming renovations at Our Lady of Fatima where French immersion students will be moving to from Monsignor Uyen.
"All of this is happening on an on-going basis throughout the 2018 school year," says Crawford. "We're very excited."
The "blessing of the ground" ceremony in January is open to the community. Afterwards, the celebration will move indoors at the St. Clair College Thames campus.
