The St. Clair Catholic District School Board will take another run at securing funding for a new french immersion school in Sarnia.
Director of Education Dan Parr says a new school would best address continued enrollment growth at Gregory A. Hogan, but their funding application submitted last fall was denied.
"Our plan for the immediate future is simply to resubmit the plan and hope that the Ministry looks more favourably upon it this time," says Parr.
Parr says the application has been revised slightly.
"We've made some adjustments throughout all of our schools in the Sarnia area. We had some excess space at St. Mike's Bright's Grove when we submitted the original application," he says. "We no longer have that excess space because we've transferred some of our facilities functions into that excess space."
Parr hopes the reduction in excess space throughout Sarnia will make their case stronger for Gregory A. Hogan.
In the meantime, the board plans to lease additional portables for the school this February.
The revised business case and capital priorities funding application for a new french immersion school will be submitted to the Ministry of Education in July, followed by a site acquisition funding application in November.
Subject to ministry approval, the board would like to purchase property for a new school by March 2018 and begin construction by July of that year.
