Plans to start renovations at Chatham-Kent Secondary School can move forward now that the Lambton-Kent District School Board has secured a $3.56 million investment from the Ministry of Education.
MPP Rick Nicholls announced the funding boost on Wednesday, on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Education.
“The funding for the renovation to Chatham-Kent Secondary School is great news for our community,” Nicholls said in a statement. “This investment will provide a quality learning environment and new opportunities for the children of Chatham.”
Brian McKay, superintendent of business, said a large portion of the investment will be used to expand the square footage of the school's cafeteria. Part of that plan involves moving the cafeteria to the front of the school and putting in new windows to allow more natural light into the facility.
"CKKS, which is one of our largest secondary schools for student enrollment has our smallest cafeteria so really the focus of this capital work is to ensure our students, for not only lunchtime but also other learning opportunities throughout the day; have the ability to use the cafeteria when it's much more welcoming and is a much larger size," said McKay.
The school currently has approximately 1,160 students and McKay said that number is expected to go up in the coming years, which puts more of an emphasis on the need to renovate.
CKSS was built in 1963 and the most recent addition to the building was done in 2004.
At this point, McKay said the project is in the design and tender phase.
"Our hope is to have the project ready for start in the spring of 2020 which will then continue in the summer and into the fall," he said.
According to Nicholl's office, the LKDSB will receive roughly $20.5 million for 2019-2020 in renewal funding to maintain and improve the condition of its schools.
"The Chatham-Kent Secondary School project is unique in that we're actually adding some square footage onto the front of the building to ensure that we can right-size that cafeteria space for our students," said McKay. "In doing so, you need to receive ministry approval even when we are using funding that has already been provided by the ministry through the annual capital grant funding process."
In addition, to the expansion and modernization of the cafeteria, the school's busing zone will also get some renovations to make it larger.